County still not in red tier Town Hall meeting set for 6 p.m. Thursday

As Tulare County continues to prepare to finally move into the red tier in the coming weeks, officials at least made this clear on Tuesday: Tulare County won’t be implementing restrictions that are any greater than what state guidelines call for.

But there are obviously still questions when it comes to what the guidelines allow, particularly when it high school sports, including cheerleading, and other extra curricular activities as high schools begin to ramp up for sports competition again this spring.

That was an issue that came up during the weekly report presented by Tulare County Health and Human Services Director Tim Lutz on the status of COVID-19 in Tulare County at Tuesday’s Tulare County Board of Supervisors meeting.

Tulare County again will host a COVID Vaccine virtual town hall meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 11. It will be the second town hall meeting the county has had concerning COVID-19.

The county will provide updates and information regarding vaccination efforts in Tulare County. The town hall meeting will be livestreamed on the Tulare County Health & Human Services Agency’s Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/tularecountyhhsa/.

Community members are invited to submit questions for the town hall and can submit their questions at:https:// covid19.tularecounty.ca.gov/cv19vthqform/.

Questions need to be submitted by 5 p.m. today. Those speaking at the

town hall meeting will be Tulare County Board chair Amy Shuklian, Lutz, Tulare County Public Health Director Karen Elliott and Krissy Leach of the Tulare County COVID Vaccine Task Force.

Lutz said questions about guidelines concerning the red tier and issues such as high school sports can also be addressed at the town hall meeting.

Tulare County won’t be moving into the red tier today. Lutz stated Tulare County’s case rate as released by the state is now 9.5 per 100,000 residents over a 7-day period or .0095 percent. That’s down from 11 per 100,000 from a week ago.

Tulare County would move into the red tier when it reduces its case rate to 7 per 100,000. Tulare County continued to move closer to that 7 per 100,000 rate as its unofficial, preliminary rate fell to 8.5 per 100,000 on Tuesday, a drop of .5 from the previous day.

But Tulare County now meets the standard of moving into the red tier of 10 or less per 100,000 once 2 million vaccine doses are given to the state’s most disadvantaged areas. As of Tuesday, Lutz said 1.326 million of those doses had been given.

Tulare County is still in the most restrictive tier, the purple tier, with the next least restrictive tier being the red tier. Lutz said the state has also made adjustments as far as when counties can move into the two least restrictive tiers, the orange tier, and the least restrictive tier, the yellow tier.

Once 4 million doses are given to the state’s most disadvantaged areas, when a county lowers its case rate to 6 per 100,000, it can move into the orange tier. Counties that have a case rate of 2 or less per 100,000 can move into the yellow tier.

With a decline in the county of those seeking to be tested, Lutz stressed the importance testing and encouraged residents to continue to be tested, adding the more testing the county does helps reduce its case rate. “It helps us get to the red tier faster,” Lutz said.

Tulare County’s positive test rates continue to come down, moving further below the 8 percent threshold to move into the red tier. Tulare County’s overall positive test rate is 4.3 percent. Its equity metric positive test rate for its most disadvantaged areas is 5.7 percent. The county’s overall positive test rate of 4.3 percent already meets the orange tier standard.

Lutz and county officials clarified on Tuesday what is now allowed by the state when it comes to high school sports such as cheerleading and other extra-curricular activities such as band and choir. Again, officials stressed when it comes to those activities, the county’s restrictions won’t be any greater than what the state guidelines call for. But they also stressed what’s allowed is still up to the discretion of school districts.

Cheerleader competitions are allowed. But as far as if cheerleaders and/or bands are allowed at football games, the state guideline is one spectator per one participant and cheerleaders and band members can be counted as spectators.