This week, California Health Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly had
mixed news for counties today. Perhaps the more important news is
what he didn’t cover at the customary noon press conference
today: the application of new case rate flexibility for small
counties. This development came as a result of strong advocacy by
the CSAC Rural Caucus and a special CSAC Rural Caucus Working
Group, both led by CSAC Second Vice President Ed Valenzuela of
Siskiyou County. We cover the new small county metric in more
detail below.
While the state’s overall numbers are good – averaging 7.1 cases
per 100,000 residents with a 2.7 percent positivity rate – there
are several hotspots with rising cases. As a result of two
consecutive weeks of increasing cases and positivity rates, the
state is moving Shasta and Tehama Counties back into more
restrictive tiers. Shasta had been in the orange tier and is now
in red, and Tehama had been in the red tier and is now in purple.
On the opposite end is Humboldt County, which becomes the first
county to move to a less-restrictive tier (from orange to yellow)
as a result of decreasing cases and the application of the new
Health Equity metric. No other counties were impacted by the new
Health Equity metric this week, which, because of CSAC
advocacy, may only be applied to move a county forward to a
less-restrictive tier, not “backwards.”
CSAC continues to engage with the Newsom Administration on the
tiers, data adjudication, and guidance needs. For example, the
state has yet to release new guidance on gatherings or theme
parks, while many counties continue to grapple with local
pressure to reopen specific sectors, such as weddings and other
private gatherings. While counties have made significant progress
on the small county case adjustment and last week’s
implementation of the new health equity metric, much work remains
to be done.
