Anyone in a big fat hurry about getting the economic lights turned back on in the time of COVID had better ask their doctors for a renewable prescription for chill pills. It’s not happening anytime soon. Unless of course, you’re hoping to get your hair cut or styled indoors. That was the big takeaway from this Friday’s press conference held by County Public Health Officer Dr. Henning Officer, Health Director Van Do-Reynoso, and Supervisor Gregg Hart.
The big news of the day was the four-colored, tiered system just announced by Governor Gavin Newsom that afternoon for re-restarting the economy. The new system, to use Newsom’s language, will be more “stubborn” and “stringent” than the system in effect since earlier this summer when he gave all 58 counties the authority to individually determine whether they had the capacity to do enough testing and tracking and tracing to keep COVID under wraps.
The new color-codes tier system goes from purple to red to orange to yellow, purple being the most restrictive in terms of what’s allowed and yellow being the most wide open. Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo counties are all purple. In fact, 87 percent of the state residents, said Supervisor Gregg Hart, live in purple counties. Only 12 percent live in red counties, one percent in orange and one-tenth of one percent in yellow.