November 25, 2020 at 2:29 pm

In San Joaquin County, COVID-19 numbers dipped slightly this week after the county was moved to the purple tier. After recording a 6.5% test positivity rate and 16.4 daily cases per 100,000 people last week, the county is now at 6% and 14.5 cases per 100,000 respectively.

San Joaquin is still in the purple (the most restrictive tier) and will likely remain there for some time, as cases are expected to rise nationwide due to Thanksgiving. The county’s positivity rate is below the 8% threshold for the next tier down, red. However, its case rate, at 14.5, is more than twice the maximum of 7 daily cases for the red tier.

The state began a more aggressive approach to combating the coronavirus last Monday, when Gov. Gavin Newsom moved more than two dozen counties into the purple tier and issued new public health guidelines. A curfew was also announced on Friday between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. Multiple San Joaquin police departments have said that the order will not alter their approaches to the virus.

Almost 95% of California’s population is currently in a purple county, and both counties that were in the yellow tier last week, Alpine and Mariposa, have moved back up to orange. Despite being in the purple, San Joaquin’s numbers have been somewhat in line with the state’s averages. The state currently has a 6.2% positivity rate and a case rate of 24.9.