Changes To COVID-19 Tiers Coming to California Could Mean Sooner Reopening of Disneyland, Universal Studios Hollywood

Shannen Ace

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Changes To COVID-19 Tiers Coming to California Could Mean Sooner Reopening of Disneyland, Universal Studios Hollywood

As case rates in California continue to drop, the guidelines for California’s reopening are being changed, Deadline reports. The updated guidelines could lead to an earlier opening for Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure, which have been closed for almost a full year.

Through the updated guidelines, reopening tiers will be tied to vaccinations as well as pre-existing criteria. Currently, counties in the purple tier are able to move down to the red tier when they reach a COVID-19 case rate of 7 per 100,000. Orange County, where Disneyland is, was only a few decimal points away from reaching that goal this week. With the new guidelines, counties will be able to move to the red tier at a daily rate of 10 per 100,000 cases, following the administration of two million vaccine doses to the state’s hard-hit communities. 1.6 million vaccines have already been distributed to those communities, so the guideline change is not far off. Additional changes will be made once the state administers four million vaccine doses.

Governor Newsom stated that 40% of California’s vaccines would be set aside for hard-hit communities. He recently noted that over 9.5 million California residents have received doses.

“With more vaccines online and administered, California is now in a position to take steps toward ending this pandemic by keeping our guard up and by vaccinating those Californians most at risk and most exposed,” Newsom said in a statement. “Vaccinating our most impacted communities, across our state, is the right thing to do and the fastest way to end this pandemic.”

Orange County was in the red tier for a few weeks last fall before moving back into the purple tier in mid-November. A bill was recently passed in favor of Disneyland Resort reopening in the orange tier, or tier 3, after purple and red.