Updated: Jan 29, 2021

The stay-at-home order was lifted by California Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday, Jan. 25. This comes as cases of COVID-19 began to diminish after the end of the holiday season.

The stay-at-home order was initially put in place on Dec. 3 due to ICU capacities reaching below 15%. This order shut down dining and other businesses in order to lower the number of cases in the state as a whole. More than a month later this order has been lifted.

“Today, we can lay claim to starting to see some real light at the end of the tunnel as it relates to case numbers,” Newsom said during a press conference.“Each region’s a little bit different, but we are in a position projecting four weeks forward with a significant decline in the case rates, positivity rates.”

This means that the state is now moving back to the previously employed tier method which tracks each county’s COVID-19 numbers. These tiers are yellow, orange, red and purple, where yellow is a county that is least at risk and purple is a county that is the most at risk. Most counties, including Los Angeles and Ventura, are in the purple tier. This means that these counties are the most at risk for the COVID-19 virus.

The end of the stay-at-home order puts restrictions in the hands of local officials instead of at the state scale. The reopening of the state is labeled as a “Blueprint for a Safer Economy” which is a plan that hopes to enable the safe reopening of businesses across California through certain guidelines.

 Restaurants will be allowed to open for outdoor service at the purple tier starting Friday, Jan. 29. Other businesses are permitted to open immediately after the order is lifted. Gyms and churches will be able to operate outdoors once again. Hair and nail salons, along with other personal care businesses, will be allowed to open with limited indoor service. Entertainment businesses such as movie theaters and zoos will once again be allowed to operate under certain restrictions.

Private gatherings will be permitted if they are conducted outside and consist of three families or less. However, these openings are subject to change if the number of cases and hospitalizations rise. 

“This is not the time for people to think we can get back to our normal businesses and our normal ways of interacting with each other. If we’re not careful, our metrics that are headed in the right direction will quickly change,”  L.A. County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer said in a news conference.

If the counties continue to decrease their amount of cases and move to less at-risk tiers, more restrictions will be lifted.“We feel like we are on firm footing based on science, based on firm data and based on common sense as well,” Newsom said.

Jan. 25, 2021

On Monday, January 25, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the end of the state-wide stay-at-home order. This comes as cases of COVID-19 began to diminish after the end of the holiday season.

The stay-at-home order was initially put in place on Dec. 3 due to ICU capacities reaching below 15%. This order shut down dining and other businesses in order to lower the number of cases in the state as a whole. More than a month later this order has been lifted.

This means that the state is now moving back to the previously employed tier method which tracks each county’s COVID-19 numbers. These tiers are yellow, orange, red and purple, where yellow is a county that is least at risk and purple is a county that is the most at risk. Most counties, including Los Angeles and Ventura, are in the purple tier. This means that these counties are the most at risk for the COVID-19 virus.

The end of the stay-at-home order puts restrictions in the hands of local officials instead of at the state scale. Restaurants will be allowed to open for outdoor service at the purple tier. Hair salons will be allowed to open with limited indoor service however, other non-essential indoor businesses will not be allowed to operate.

As restrictions are now left to local officials it is unclear how much change is in store for Ventura and Los Angeles counties at this time.