Kern may go to Purple Tier

The news is currently grim for Kern County due to the increase in covid-19 cases.

The state is threatening to move Kern County back to the purple tier; however, the county has been given another week to change its numbers. If it can’t, then it will be back to the most-restrictive tier. The tiers go by yellow as the least restrictive, then orange, red and purple.

On Tuesday, Nov. 10, Kern County Public Health Director Matt Constantine said that the county has an adjusted case rate of 8.9 per 100,000, which is a large jump from the previous rate of 6.4 announced last week.

In order for the county to remain in the red tier, the case rate must be 7.0 or lower.

Constantine said that the jump was not surprising due to the fact that the numbers of cases are currently rising across the state, nation and the world.

“Schools in Kern County that opened would be allowed to remain open,” Constantine said.

He also said schools that have remained closed would be required to wait until the county goes back into the red tier to open up.

Dropping back to the purple tier would mean hair salons, nail salons, restaurants and stores would again be limited to take out or delivery service only.

On Tuesday, Nov. 10, Wasco had a total number of 1,695 positive cases, which is the exact same number as the week of Nov. 5; however, on Nov. 10, there were 644 recovered cases as compared to 633 completely recovered and the presumably recovered numbers remained the same from the week of Nov. 5 through the week of Nov. 10.

Shafter’s numbers show 1,385 positive cases for the week of Nov. 10 with 709 completely recovered and 344 presumably recovered.

On Nov. 5, Shafter’s numbers were 1,353 positive cases as compared to 1,326 on Oct. 27. There were 709 recovered on Nov. 3 as compared to 703 on Nov. 5 and presumably recovered were 310 on Nov. 5 as compared to 709 on Nov. 10.

Residents are advised to be vigilant about wearing masks whenever they are in public and continue to maintain social distancing.