In the past months when COVID-19 numbers had started going down in other states, our beloved California was having a hard time dropping down its numbers to make its way out of the Purple Tier. Now, COVID-19 numbers are finally going down at a good pace on the West Coast, so is our tier. As of April 20th, Santa Barbara County, as well as four other counties, had moved from the Red to Orange tier. To break it down, seventeen counties remain in the Red tier, thirty-eight in the Orange, and three in the yellow- so what does that mean for us? First off, with having moved into a slightly less restrictive, flexible tier, retail stores can operate at full capacity compared to fifty percent; places of worship can now be at fifty percent capacity indoors, compared to twenty-five percent before; gyms and fitness centers can operate at twenty-five percent, up from ten percent; restaurants can fill up to fifty percent of their indoor seating, while wineries, breweries, and distilleries can open indoors up to twenty-five percent capacity and are no longer required to operate on a reservation-only system.

Vaccination efforts have also boosted as our state’s numbers improve. Every Californian sixteen and up is now eligible for vaccination and people younger than sixteen will start as soon as the COVID-19 vaccines are approved for them. A little more than forty-two percent of Californians have received their first dose as of April 20th, and nearly twenty-six percent are fully vaccinated according to the LA Times vaccination tracker.

Remember, it is only a matter of time unit we are flying by the Yellow tier and into normality again! For more information, you can look on the Centers for Disease Control’s website here. Stay safe!