State Loosens Restrictions in San Mateo County

The county as of 12:01 a.m. Wednesday (a minute after midnight) moves from the most-restrictive purple Tier 1 to red Tier 2 in the state’s four-tier, color-coded reopening plan.  

The move allows changes for numerous types of businesses: restaurants can resume indoor dining with modifications; gyms can open indoors with modifications; and retail and shopping centers can increase capacity.

The county progressed to the red tier due to two metrics, calculated by the state: The case rate has fallen to 5.6 percent and the health equity quartile positivity rate to 3.7 percent. The health equity quartile measures rates of infection with the virus in the county’s most disadvantaged communities based on the California Health Places Index.

The County’s outreach to and support of these communities in the Healthy Places Index are given significant weight in the State’s formula for the tier allocation.

“It is something to applaud,” said Louise Rogers, chief of San Mateo County Health. “Reducing that disparity is going in the right direction. Our goal is to drive that disparity, affecting our most impacted communities, to zero.”

Rogers said the rate of local COVID testing – 821 per 100,000 residents each day – places the county second to Yolo County in the most tests per day among the state’s 58 counties.

“Testing remains important, so we have good information about the extent of the spread of the virus in our community,” Rogers said.

Local COVID-19 cases spiked in December 2020. Positive cases set a record of 546 on Jan. 4, 2021, then have fallen off over the past month. Still, cases have doubled since Dec. 9, 2020, from 19,107 to 38,353 through Sunday, Feb. 21, 2021.

To move to the next tier – orange Tier 2 that opens further sectors of the economy – positivity rates and additional metrics must continue to fall.

Please click here for the county's press release