With COVID-19 case rates continuing to fall in most of California, two more Bay Area counties are poised to move from the purple tier to the state's less restrictive red tier.
Alameda and Solano counties are expected to leave the purple tier when state officials update the county tier assignments sometime Tuesday. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that state health officials confirmed the change to the paper.
That would allow restaurants to once again host diners inside at limited capacity and reopen other indoor businesses like gyms, museums, pools and even movie theaters.
Five other Bay Area counties are already in the red tier. The change would leave just Contra Costa and Sonoma counties at the most restricted level.
Alameda County, in particular, has shown strong improvement in a number of metrics. Its current coronavirus test positivity rate is down to 1.6%, below the statewide rate of 2.1% and approaching the all-time low rate that the county saw in early October.
New COVID-19 cases continue to come in at a declining rate, down another 20% over the last week statewide.
