In This Issue
Santa Clara County Returns to Purple Tier
On Monday, January 25, the State of California announced the lifting of its Regional Stay at Home Order for all regions statewide, including the Bay Area. Effective today, Santa Clara County has returned to the Purple Tier of the State’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, with some additional local restrictions remaining in place. Outdoor dining may now resume, as well as personal care services and professional, collegiate, and adult and youth sports. The County’s mandatory travel quarantine remains in place, requiring a 10-day quarantine for most people who travel into the county from more than 150 miles away. As always, businesses and individuals must follow both the State and County Health Officer orders, and where there is a conflict between the two, the stricter rules must be followed.
Below are a few important changes that went into effect on January 25. Revised mandatory directives for each have been published to the County’s website.
• Professional and collegiate sports may resume, subject to the updated Mandatory
Directive for Collegiate and Professional Sports.
• Adult recreational sports activities may resume subject to the updated Mandatory
Directive for Gatherings, including specific rules in Section 9 of that Directive.
• Youth sports may resume subject to the State’s guidance applicable to those activities,
as well as the County’s Mandatory Directive for Programs Serving Children and
Youth.
• Most businesses that are allowed to open indoor operations to the public must limit
capacity of their publicly accessible space to 20%. The County’s Mandatory Directive
on Capacity Limitations has been updated to reflect current openings and closings.
• Outdoor gatherings with up to three households are now allowed for any purpose.
Larger outdoor gatherings with up to 200 people are allowed only for political,
religious, or ceremonial purposes, or as otherwise specifically allowed by the State.
Indoor gatherings of any kind remain prohibited. All allowed gatherings must
comply with the County’s updated Mandatory Directive for Gatherings.
• The County’s Mandatory Directive on Travel, which requires most people who travel
into the county from more than 150 miles away to quarantine for 10 days upon their
arrival, is still in effect.
• The County’s Mandatory Directive for Lodging Facilities is still in effect. Lodging
facilities may not provide lodging services for non-essential purposes, such as
tourism, recreational, or leisure purposes. Non-essential travel should be avoided,
especially in light of new variants of COVID-19 that are circulating globally and in the
United States.
For more updates and information, the public may visit the county’s website. Information
regarding COVID-19 testing is available at sccfreetest.org, and information about
vaccine eligibility and distribution is available at sccfreevax.org.
What Purple Tier Means for Businesses
Santa Clara County has returned to the Purple Tier of the State's Blueprint for a Safer Economy with some additional local restrictions remaining in place.
Important updates for businesses include:
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Restaurants: Open for outdoor dining and take-out service. Indoor dining remains prohibited.
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Retail: Open at 20% capacity indoors. This includes grocery stores, drug stores, and pharmacies. (The County is more restrictive than the State's Blueprint.)
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Personal care services: Open indoors at 20% capacity. This includes nail salons, hair salons, barbers, skin care, tattoos, waxing, and piercing.
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Gyms and fitness centers: Open for outdoors only. Hot tubs and saunas must remain closed.
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Shopping centers: Open but common areas such as food courts closed. Total indoor capacity for the shopping center as a whole is calculated by adding together the Reduced Maximum Capacity for each individual tenant business of the shopping center that is allowed to open indoors.
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Hotels and lodging: Closed for non-essential purposes.
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Museums, zoos, and aquariums: Open for outdoors only.
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Health care facilities: Open for indoor appointments.
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Wineries: Open for take-out service only.
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Bars, breweries, distilleries: Open for take-out service and outdoor dining, only if alcohol is served with a meal purchased in the same transaction.
Click here for more information on the County's Mandatory Capacity Limitations.
Vaccine Eligibility Now Includes Age 65+
The County Health System and Stanford Healthcare are now scheduling vaccination appointments for County residents who are 65 and older.
The State of California has authorized all healthcare systems statewide to vaccinate any persons age 65 and older, in addition to continuing vaccinations for healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities. However, due to limited vaccine supply, some healthcare systems in our County are offering vaccination only to people age 75 and older at this time. Following the State’s priority phases and tiers, each healthcare system decides what categories of patients they have the capacity to vaccinate at any given time.
Current Vaccination in Santa Clara County:
Phase 1A
- Healthcare personnel and long-term care facility residents (all health systems)
Phase 1B (Tier 1- Partial)
- County residents 75 and older (Kaiser Permanente and Palo Alto Medical Foundation)
- County residents 65 and older (County Health System and Stanford Healthcare)
Vaccine availability and eligibility is changing rapidly, and all vaccinations are by appointment only at this time. View updates and detailed information about vaccine eligibility on the County's website.
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