SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — San Diego County will be lifted from California's coronavirus-related restrictions once the state reopens on June 15.
After that time, businesses will not be subject to the capacity limits and social distancing requirements that were part of the state's reopening tiers.
While this is the first time businesses will be able to operate as normal in more than a year, the county has — at times — come close to relaxed coronavirus restrictions.
A local public health emergency was declared on Feb. 14, 2020, with restrictions imposed starting on March 13 -18, 2020.
Many businesses endured tight restrictions until June 12, 2020, when gyms, hotels, bars, and other businesses were allowed to open. But by July 13, 2020, indoor operations for certain businesses were closed because of the rise in COVID-19 cases.
California began its color-coded reopening tier system on Aug. 31, 2020, and San Diego County was placed in the red tier, the second strictest. As COVID-19 cases steadily rose, the county moved into the strictest purple tier on Nov. 10, 2020.
After the Halloween and Thanksgiving holidays, coronavirus cases began to spike, prompting the state to issue a regional stay-at-home order that lasted until Jan. 25, 2021. The order forced many businesses that were able to operate in some capacity in the purple tier to close outright under the order.
Then San Diego County began to receive its first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 13, 2020. As the region received and administered more and more doses of the vaccine, the county reached its peak in cases in early January 2021. By March 5, the county had administered one million doses.
After the stay-at-home order was lifted, San Diego County remained in the purple tier once again until March 17, when the county moved up to the red tier. The county sat there for a little less than a month until it moved into the orange tier on April 7, and then the yellow tier on June 9, one week before the state was scheduled to lift the tier system.
