The State of California has announced that Marin County will be moving from red to orange status in its framework for business reopenings during the COVID-19 pandemic. The change will go into effect on Wednesday, March 24.

The move from tier 2 (substantial risk) to the less restrictive tier 3 (moderate risk) is based on consecutive weeks of progress in Marin's coronavirus case statistics. Marin joins Santa Clara and San Francisco as Bay Area counties moving to tier 3 this week. San Mateo County achieved orange status on March 17.

The primary changes allowed under the state order as Marin moves into the orange tier are as follows:

• Retail and grocery stores: can expand indoor capacity to 100%
• Restaurants – indoor dining: can expand indoor capacity to 50% or 200 people (whichever is fewer)
• Museums and movie theaters: can expand indoor capacity to 50% or 200 people (whichever is fewer)
• Houses of worship: can expand indoor capacity to 50% or 200 people (whichever is fewer)
• Weddings/funerals: can expand indoor capacity to 50% or 200 people (whichever is fewer)
• Family recreation / entertainment facilities: can expand indoor capacity to 25%
• Gyms & fitness studios: can expand indoor capacity to 25% and reopen indoor pools
• Breweries/wineries that do not serve food: can expand indoor capacity to 25% or 100 people (whichever is fewer)
• Bars that do not serve food: can operate outdoors only
• Non-essential offices may reopen (but working remotely is still encouraged)
• Higher education: can expand indoor capacity to 50% for indoor lectures

Changes to business sector guidelines are available on the Marin Recovers website and the California Blueprint for a Safer Economy website.

While case rates have continued to improve over the past month, public health officials caution residents that more work is needed to achieve the next milestone.

"The next four weeks are pivotal for us," said Dr. Matt Willis, Marin's Public Health Officer. "We saw an uptick in cases last week and with variant cases increasing. We don't want to drop the ball before we reach the goal line. Letting your guard down puts us at risk of slipping backward. While pandemic fatigue is real, we must stay the course to help Marin reach tier 4."