Gov. Gavin Newsom warned Californians on Monday that the coronavirus pandemic is worsening across the state, and some counties will have to put restrictions back in place.
Newsom said that on Tuesday when state officials give their weekly announcement about where counties fall on the color-coded reopening chart, several counties are likely to move up a risk level instead of down.
“Anticipate that we’ll see some counties moving backwards, not forwards. And this is exactly why we designed the tier status the way we did,” he said.
The state’s case positivity rate has jumped from 2.5 percent to 3.7 percent in the last three weeks and the average number of daily new cases has nearly doubled.
“We will see more restrictive tiering based upon case rates that have begun to increase. You look at places like Mono County, you look at Kings, Alpine, Shasta counties, you’re starting to see an R effective rate growing, you’re starting to see case rates growing,” said Newsom.
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The announcement came on the same day that Pfizer announced early data suggests the company’s COVID-19 vaccine is 90 percent effective.
“The vaccine is on the way, that’s good news. But the availability to you and me and others, outside our first responders, outside our healthcare professionals, is many, many months off,” he said. “We may get over exuberant because now we believe we have a safe and effective vaccine that is available, and people may go back to their original form. That would be a terrible mistake.”
Newsom said with cases surging in California and across the country, now is the time for vigilance, not complacency.