Placer County was downgraded to the more restrictive Red Tier in the State’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy on Tuesday, denoting “substantial” COVID-19 risk. The change is designed to slow the spread of COVID-19 and requires places of worship and most businesses to reduce capacity, while requiring some non-essential businesses, including bars and breweries not serving meals, to close.

Red Tier requirements include:

• Retailers must reduce indoor capacity from 100% to 50%
• Places of worship must reduce indoor capacity from 50% to 25% or 100 people, whichever is fewer
• Gyms and fitness centers must reduce indoor capacity from 25% to 10%
• Restaurants must reduce indoor service capacity from 50% to 25%
• Museums must reduce indoor capacity from 50% to 25%
• Movie theaters and family entertainment centers must reduce indoor capacity from 50% to 25%
• Wineries are limited to outdoor operations only
• Non-essential offices are limited to remote operations
• Bars, breweries and distilleries must close

Hair salons, barbershops, nail salons, massage therapy and tattoo shops can continue to operate with modifications.

Placer County has seen COVID-19 metrics worsen over the past few weeks, with the 7-day average daily case rate at 8.4 cases per 100,000 and the 7-day test positivity rate at 4.1%, as of Monday, Nov. 9.

Every county in California is assigned to a tier based on its test positivity and adjusted case rate. At a minimum, counties must remain in a tier for at least 3 weeks before moving forward. Data is reviewed weekly and tiers are updated on Tuesdays. To move forward, a county must meet the next tier’s criteria for two consecutive weeks. If a county’s metrics worsen for two consecutive weeks, it will be assigned a more restrictive tier. 

To learn more visit the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy website.