If Kern continues to meet current metrics, it could move into Red Tier next week

March 16, 2021 /

The State announced Tuesday that Kern County’s COVID-19 metrics meet the thresholds for the State’s COVID-19 Blueprint for a Safer Economy, moving Kern closer to the Red Tier.

If Kern continue to meet these metrics for two consecutive weeks, Kern will qualify to move into the Red Tier as early as March 24, 2021, Kern Public Health says.

Every county is assigned to one of four tiers based on the adjusted case rate, testing positivity rate, and health equity metric. Kern’s adjusted case rate, as of Tuesday, was 7.8 per 100,000 people; testing positivity rate was 3.7 percent; and health equity quartile testing positivity rate was 4.9 percent.

Counties must remain in their tier for at least three weeks and must meet the metrics of the less restrictive tier for at least two consecutive weeks prior to officially moving to that less restrictive tier.  As Kern County did not meet the Red Tier metrics last week, Kern remains in the Purple Tier this week.

If Kern moves to the red tier, some highlights of expanded operations and activities include: restaurants can open indoors at 25 percent capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer; gyms can open indoors at 10 percent capacity; movie theaters can open indoors at 25 percent capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer; and  junior high and high schools can reopen for in-person instruction as early as March 24 if Kern meets the metrics two consecutive weeks.

Kern County Public Health announced Tuesday 77 new COVID-19 cases and 5 new COVID-19 related deaths, bringing the total number of cases to 105,020 and total number of deaths to 993.