San Diego Moves to ‘Red Tier’ March 17 – What It Means For You

By Anny H. Ruth | March 16, 2021

San Diego County will move to the ‘Red Tier” on Wednesday, March 17 after the state revised its tier system. The revisions were in light of the state vaccinating 2 million people in the communities hardest hit by COVID-19. This change means that restaurants, gyms, movie theatres and other establishments can resume indoor operations, at limited capacity with modifications.

San Diego is among eleven other counties that are moving to the less restrictive Red Tier, which now requires a case rate of 4 -10 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents. San Diego County’s state-calculated, adjusted case rate is currently 8.8 cases per 100,000 residents.

County public health officer, Wilma Wooten said in a statement, “This is great news for our region. San Diegans have done a good job following the public health guidance and that has driven our case rate down in recent weeks. Our vaccination efforts have also helped to slow the spread of COVID-19. As more people get vaccinated, the number of cases should continue to decrease.”

The County must remain in the Red Tier and post two consecutive weeks of data in the in the Orange Tier before moving to the less restrictive level which would ease restrictions even more.

Currently, the testing positivity percentage is 3.3%, placing the County in Tier 3 or the Orange Tier. The County’s health equity metric, which looks at the testing positivity for areas with the lowest healthy conditions, is 4.5% and is also in the Orange Tier or Tier 3. While two of the three metrics qualify the County for the Orange Tier or Tier 3, the state assigns counties to the most restrictive tier.

When the state administers 4 million doses in the vaccine equity quartile, tier assignments will be revised once again.

New Vaccine Eligibility Begins this Week

Beginning this week, people between 16 and 64 years of age who have a severe health condition will be able to get vaccinated against COVID-19. San Diegans with a developmental or other severe high-risk disability will also be eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

People in Phase 1 are encouraged to get vaccinated by their health care provider. San Diegans without a doctor should contact 2-1-1 or make an appointment at www.vaccinationsuperstationsd.com.

San Diegans who have a health care provider don’t have show proof of an existing medical condition because their medical history is already on file and doctors should be inviting their patients to get vaccinated when it’s their turn. People without a health care provider will be asked to sign a self-attestation form indicating they have one of the chronic conditions listed.

Higher-Capacity Vaccination Clinic to Open in Oceanside

A new, higher capacity COVID-19 vaccination clinic in Oceanside will start administering shots today. The new walk-in clinic will be offering vaccines from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sun. through Thurs. at the North Coastal Health and Human Services Agency building, 1701 Mission Ave. in Oceanside.

The clinic will have the capacity to offer up to 700 shots daily, 200 more doses than the other clinic. Appointments will be required at the new clinic and some doses will be set aside for residents living in the 92058 ZIP code.

San Diego Vaccination Progress

The county has reported that 400,000 residents, or 14.8% of those 16 and older, are fully immunized. Nearly 688,000 have received at least one shot, which is 25.6% of eligible recipients.