Red Shifting to Orange

[canyonwalker]

Yesterday was Tuesday: another Tier Tuesday in California, when the state updates its map of Covid-19 risk level by county. This week's update shows an increasing number of counties in Orange Tier, the second least restrictive level:



In particular four counties in the SF Bay Area are now at orange: Santa Clara (where I live), San Mateo, San Francisco, and Marin. These counties together represent a population of about 4,000,000 people. That's about 10% of the state and is well more than the 2% in Orange Tier last week. Also compared to last week, the portion in Purple Tier (the highest risk) has dropped from 10% to 6%. This progress aligns with the dropping rate of new cases in California I wrote about yesterday.

The move from red to orange tiers brings a loosening of restrictions. Here are a few of the changes:

• Bars can serve alcohol, for outdoors consumption, without also serving food
• Restaurants, movie theaters, and museums can increase to 50% capacity
• Retail stores no longer have capacity restriction
• Gyms can increase to 25% capacity
• Sports and live performances can open outdoors at 20% capacity; other restrictions apply
• Nonessential businesses can open their offices for workers, though work-from-home is still strongly encouraged.

Example news coverage: ABC 7 (San Jose) article, KCRA (Sacramento) article, NBC 4 (Los Angeles) article.

What do these changes mean for me, personally? Basically, nothing.

1. I'm not ready to return to dining in restaurants yet. It remains somewhat risky; even our much-lower-than-January rate in California is only now the same as in September. And it's strictly an option. I prepare most of my meals at home now, and when I do get a yen for restaurant food I've found satisfaction in take-out or outdoors dining, both of which are much safer alternatives to dining inside restaurants. Why choose the much riskier option?! I will reevaluate this once I'm fully vaccinated and rates continue to drop (or at least don't increase).
2. I have no interest in going to a movie theater right now. Few new movies have been released in the past year anyway, and many of those that have have been released to streaming. Yay, watching movies from the comfort of my own home instead of paying $10+ per ticket and $5 for a cup of soda at a theater.
3. I feel no compunction to go to museums, gyms, sports, concerts, etc. These are highly discretionary activities I can easily find far safer alternatives to.
4. Even hair salons are highly discretionary now. I've been quite successful trimming my hair at home. In fact male colleagues have complimented my grooming and asked me for tips!
5. Finally, working remotely is not only safer than working in a company office, it's much more efficient.