California's COVID Tier System Not Going Away Early
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - California's official reopening date is two weeks away, but what does that mean for the golden state's tier system?
"Our case rate is dropping to a point where we feel safe to start opening up more businesses more public venues," said Chevon Kothari, Sacramento County's health services director.
Sacramento has only 4.7 cases per 100,000 people in a county where half of the residents are fully vaccinated.
"Sacramento County just became orange in the tier system," said Kothari.
"From a social distancing perspective, we'll be able to move people a little bit closer. Restaurants in the orange allow us to operate indoors at 50 percent capacity," said Kothari.
But on June 15, all of California reopens and the tier system will be gone but not forgotten, officials say.
So we asked Director Kothari why we are still dealing with this tier system less than 14 days out from reopening.
"It gives the businesses that can open up more fully a chance to do it two weeks earlier," said Kothari.
But will the businesses be ready?
"I think it's daunting," said Sacramento restauranteur Aziz Bellarbi-Salah.
He's concerned that even with a two-week headstart they'll be overwhelmed.
"Are we going to be able to handle the flood?" said Bellarbi-Salah.
And after months of restaurant whiplash, workers haven't been able to count on employment getting back to full staff in time for guests.
"I don't care how many tables and chairs I have at this point, I don't want to seat people when they're going to get bad service," said Bellarbi-Salah.
Sacramento County will be rid of the tier system but won't stop monitoring cases. Officials say if cases start to trend upwards after the June 15 reopening date, they'll have to discuss restrictions once again.
