After two weeks of meeting the criteria, Santa Barbara County is now moving into the orange tier.
The county has seen a 21 percent decrease in active cases from April 5 to 19. Hospitalizations and intensive-care-unit rates are the lowest they’ve been since last October — hospitalizations have decreased by 63 percent and ICU cases by 71 percent. Santa Maria, most notably, saw a 53 percent decrease in cases from April 1 to 15.
The county’s adjusted case rate is 4.5 and its positivity rate is 1.8 percent. To be in the orange tier, the adjusted case rate must be below 5.9 and the positivity rate must be below 4.9 percent.