Green may soon mean go when it comes to the return of normal life in some California counties.
While most Bay Area counties have been focused on moving from the purple to the red tier of reopening, Gov. Gavin Newsom now says the tier system is expanding.
"So we are working quite literally on a green tier and have been for now a number of months in anticipation of this bright light now at the end of this tunnel."
The details are not finalized but green would mean a return to normal of sorts, where the virus has become rare enough that businesses can return to normal operations.
"As we start to reopen, as we get to 10, 15, 20 million vaccinations, get closer and closer to herd immunity, then we will start to make it clear that these tiers are temporary," said Gov. Newsom. "They’re not permanent and there’s something beyond orange and yellow, and that green tier will present itself. So over the course of the next few weeks we’ll be socializing details in that space."
Newsom said while the introduction of a green tier is an encouraging sign as transmission, hospitalizations and death continue to plummet across the state, don’t expect any counties to go green right away.
"It’s so important we don’t run the 90-yard dash. It’s so important at this critical moment, when we don’t see light at the end of the tunnel but bright light at the end of the tunnel, that we don’t let down our guard."
Most of the state is still in the purple tier but that is expected to change soon, thanks in part to the new equity standard for vaccination requirements.
State officials have previously said that once the state hits two million doses of vaccine administered in underprivileged areas, the tier assignment rules will be relaxed.
That target is expected to be reached today.
That will likely be the last push that Contra Costa and Sonoma counties need to join the rest of the Bay Area in the red tier of opening.
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