Santa Clara County Moves Back to Purple Tier

Published on January 26, 2021

The State of California announced the lifting of its Regional Stay at Home Order for all regions statewide, including all counties in the Bay Area. Effective January 25, 2021, Santa Clara County has returned to the Purple Tier of the State’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, with some additional local restrictions remaining in place. Outdoor dining, personal care services, and professional, collegiate, and adult and youth sports may all resume as of today’s announcement. Outdoor gatherings with up to three households are now allowed for any purpose. The County’s mandatory travel quarantine remains in place, requiring a 10-day quarantine for most people who travel into the county from more than 150 miles away. Businesses and individuals must continue to follow both the State and County Health Officer orders, and where there is a conflict between the two, the stricter rules must be followed. Go here for the full announcement from the Santa Clara County Department of Public Health, which includes which key rules remain in effect for businesses.

Please visit the Santa Clara County Public Health Department’s webpage for revised mandatory directives. These following changes are effective as of January 25, 2021:

• Outdoor dining may resume, subject to the Mandatory Directive for Dining. Indoor dining remains prohibited. Bars, breweries, distilleries, and pubs may serve alcohol only outdoors and only in the same transaction as a meal.
• Personal care services may resume indoors and outdoors, subject to the Mandatory Directive for Personal Care Services.
• Professional and collegiate sports may resume, subject to the updated Mandatory Directive for Collegiate and Professional Sports.
• Adult recreational sports activities may resume subject to the updated Mandatory Directive for Gatherings, including specific rules in Section 9 of that Directive.
• Youth sports may resume subject to the State’s guidance applicable to those activities, as well as the County’s Mandatory Directive for Programs Serving Children and Youth.
• Most businesses that are allowed to open indoor operations to the public must limit capacity of their publicly accessible space to 20%. The County’s Mandatory Directive on Capacity Limitations has been updated to reflect current openings and closings.
• Outdoor gatherings with up to three households are now allowed for any purpose. Larger outdoor gatherings with up to 200 people are allowed only for political, religious, or ceremonial purposes, or as otherwise specifically allowed by the State. Indoor gatherings of any kind remain prohibited. All allowed gatherings must comply with the County’s updated Mandatory Directive for Gatherings.
• The County’s Mandatory Directive for Lodging Facilities is still in effect. Lodging facilities may not provide lodging services for non-essential purposes, such as tourism, recreational, or leisure purposes. Non-essential travel should be avoided, especially in light of new variants of COVID-19 that are circulating globally and in the United States.