Madera remains purple tier; Fresno and Merced joins

Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune

Tendeep Bajwa of Rhino Medical hands Toni Jordan of the Madera Chamber of Commerce a free COVID self-testing packet during an event hosted by the chamber, Madera Downtown Association and The Madera County Department of Public Health in September. The test was free for the business community, their employees and local residents.

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As with a number of counties in California, Madera County remains the purple tier in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

By entering the purple tier, it means COVID-19 cases are widespread.

However, neighboring counties like Fresno and Merced were also moved into the purple tier.

To move into the substantial (red) tier, Madera county must have 4-7 new cases per 100,000 and a positive rate 5-8 percent.

In the past week, Madera has had 12.8 new COVID-19 cases per day with a 3.7 percent positivity rate.

Fresno County has even more with 13.9 new COVID-19 cases per day, per 100,000 with a 6.6 positivity rate.

In California, there are more than 1,000,000 cases with 18,263 deaths.

With a spike in conoronavirus cases, 40 counties have moved into the more restrictive purple tiers.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a press conference Monday that California’s COVID-19 cases have doubled in the last 10 days, the largest the state has seen since the pandemic broke out in March.

Newsom said that counties can move after only one week of showing data that would move them into a more restrictive tiers. Businesses will now need to make changes to their safety guidelines within 24 hours of being assigned to a new tiers. Previously, the state waited two weeks of data to move between tiers.

Newsom also said that he and health officials are considering a curfew to determine if it is effective to mitigate spread.