Newsom lifts stay-at-home order, puts Kern back in purple tier

On Monday, Jan. 25, Gov. Gavin Newsom released the state from the curfew and placed 54 counties back in the most-restrictive purple tier. Newsom also lifted his stay-at-home order.

According to Newsom, the San Francisco Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley and Southern California counties are in the purple tier now.

While still restrictive, this change will now resume outdoor dining and hair and nail salons are allowed to be open. Bars that only serve beverages are still closed.

On Monday, 4,569 Wasco residents have tested positive for covid-19 while that number has increased by 126 new positive tests since Tuesday, Jan. 19.

Since the city’s population includes Wasco State Prison inmates, Correctional Lieutenant of the Wasco State Prison Joshua Farley stated that the prison as of Tuesday, Jan. 26, had 2,143 inmates. That means Wasco — without counting the inmates — has almost 18% of the population testing positive at one time since the beginning of the pandemic.

There have been 1,382 recovered from the virus compared to 1,189 as of Jan. 18, which means 193 patients have recovered from the virus in one week’s time. On Jan. 25, there were 1,061 reported as assumed recovered while on Jan. 21, there were 822 assumed recovered. In just one day, from Monday, Jan. 25 to Tuesday, Jan. 26, 149 additional people tested positive for the virus.