Butte County's cases per 100,000 reached a staggering 10.8.
Anything above a 7.0 Is considered widespread in California.
"If one metric met a higher tier level than another metric, we would go with the most restrictive," said Director of Butte County Public Health, Danette York.
Increases in cases are why the state has pulled what they're calling 'the emergency brake' throughout the state.
Action news now reporter esteban reynoso is here with more on what these tier placements mean.
These tier changes go into effect immediately, and in butte county's case, even public health was expecting to be placed in the red tier.
This two tier jump is a part of the state's hope to slow the spread of covid-19.
"unfortunately it's not good news, and it has a significant impact to our community."
Butte county saw a large increase in covid-19 cases moving it into the purple tier, and dr. robert bernstein expects cases to keep climbing.
"my concern is that it will continue to rise and perhaps reach an even taller peak maybe."
"they moved the counties immediately based on this data, rather than using the two week timeframe that was a part of the tier system previously, and they moved counties into the tier assignment they fell in regardless of whether or not it skipped tiers."
One of those data points the state looks at is positivity rate, and in butte county, it's low enough to be in the orange tier, but danette york says it takes more than one metric to stay orange.
"if one metric met a higher tier level than another metric, we would go with the most restrictive.
I was very surprised, i believe everyone here at public health and the county was surprised."
Butte county's cases per 100,000 reached a staggering 10.8 -- anything above a 7.0 is considered widepread.
"i think it's frustrating because it felt like life was just starting to go somewhat back to normal.
I felt like we made so much progress and now hearing that this afternoon that we're going back into purple it's like, almost a bit hopeless."
Restaurants, gyms, movie theaters and entertainment centers must all close indoor operations.
Retail stores must limit capacity to 25%.
But schools can choose to stay open.
And we asked york, why.
"now that they're open and we're in the purple tier, why are they not closing, why are they continuing to stay open.
If a school opened while the jurisdiction was in the tier that allowed them to open, they would be able to remain open going forward, it was just too much to try to close back down."
York tells me while schools can stay open, classroom sizes will remain the same.
Colleges for those of us in the purple tier counties will g* virtual -- or remain in virtual learning.
Alan, back to you.
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