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Humboldt County's move to the state's "moderate" or orange COVID-19 risk tier yesterday — coupled with new state guidelines on events and performances — means things will be opening up here on the North Coast.

Crabs fans may be excited to learn that outdoor sporting and other seated spectator events are now allowed. In the orange their, venues must limit attendance to 33 percent of capacity, though they can increase that to 67 percent if they require guests to show proof of a vaccine or negative test results within 72 hours of attendance.

Those some attendance limitations will apply to school graduation ceremonies held this spring.

Indoor events like concerts and theatrical performances, meanwhile, will be allowed beginning April 15, with capacity capped in the orange tier at 15 percent or 200 people, whichever is fewer. That would increase to 35 percent with vaccination and testing requirements in place.

With Humboldt's move into the orange tier, movie theaters and restaurants can now increase indoor capacity to 50 percent or 200 people, whichever is fewer, while retail shops are now able to open without capacity restrictions so long as they have other modifications in place.

Outdoor playgrounds and recreation facilities, hair salons and barber shops, personal care services can all be open with modifications.

Places of worship can all be opened at 50 percent capacity, as can museums, zoos and aquariums.

Family entertainment centers can open indoor operations with modifications, like masking except for when eating, restricting food and beverage consumption to designated areas. Capacity will be capped at 25 percent capacity, though that can increase to 50 percent if all guests are tested or show proof of full vaccination prior to entry.

Bars, meanwhile, can open outdoors with modifications.

According to the Blueprint for a Safer Economy (which can be found here), private indoor gatherings are still highly discouraged but allowed with modifications, like social distancing, masks and limiting the maximum number of households gathering to three.

Beginning April 1, private outdoor events — like meetings, receptions and conferences — will be capped at 100 people unless all guests are tested or show proof of full vaccination, which would increase capacity to 300 people. For indoor events, if all guests are tested and show proof of full vaccination, a maximum of 150 people will be allowed to gather.

The state moved Humboldt County into it's orange risk tier yesterday after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the state had met a goal of administering 4 million vaccines in socio-economically disadvantaged zip codes in the state, which triggered higher thresholds for the state's risk tiers and gave Humboldt the chance to move into the less restrictive tier.

The state data released yesterday showed that Humboldt County has a test positivity rate of 2.0 percent (compared to 2.2 percent last week) and a daily case rate of 3.5 per 100,000 compared to California overall, which has a 1.8 positivity rate and 5.1 cases per 100,000. Last week, Humboldt's daily case rate was 4.6 per 100,000.

Newsom also announced yesterday that the state's tier system is slated to end June 15, with businesses and other activities across the state allowed to reopen to pre-pandemic levels, depending on two main factors: hospitalizations and vaccination supply numbers. Mask mandates will remain in effect for the foreseeable future, he said.