California Governor Gavin Newsom laid out new reopening guidelines that offer some guidance on what it will take for the theme parks of the Disneyland Resort to get approval to reopen. Under this new plan, counties are assigned color coded levels based on the daily number of positive cases per 100,000 residents or their test positivity rate. The color coding is as follows:
- Widespread (Purple):
- Daily Cases per 100,000: Greater than 7
- Test Positivity Rate: Greater than 8%
- Substantial (Red):
- Daily Cases per 100,000: 4-7
- Test Positivity Rate: 5-8%
- Moderate (Orange):
- Daily Cases per 100,000: 1-3.9
- Test Positivity Rate: 2-4.9%
- Minimal (Yellow):
- Daily Cases per 100,000: Less than 1
- Test Positivity Rate: Less than 2%
Under this plan, counties will remain in a colored tier for a minimum of 3 weeks. Starting out, Orange County is in the Widespread (Purple) tier, which means it will remain that way for at least 3 weeks.
In order to move to a lower tier, each county needs to meet the next tier’s criteria for 2 consecutive weeks. What is not yet clear is whether Orange County needs to wait 3 weeks from today or if the state will count time retroactively since the county’s current numbers (5.6 daily cases per 100,000, test positivity rate of 5%) should have them ranking in the Substantial (Red) tier, which would be an improvement to get them closer to yellow.
Gavin Newsom will be meeting later today to discuss requirements for theme parks to reopen, but he did lay out guidelines for museums, zoos, and aquariums and the policies are typically similar for theme parks. California guidelines for the reopening of these types of business can reopen under the following tiers:
- Widespread (Purple):
- Outdoor only with modifications
- Substantial (Red):
- Indoor with modifications
- Indoor activities must be limited to 25% of capacity
- Moderate (Orange):
- Indoor with modifications
- Indoor activities must be limited to 50% capacity
- Minimal (Yellow):
- Follow generic guidelines listed by the State of California
While these state guidelines can be helpful for fans to understand what it will take for Disneyland to be cleared to reopen, it does not take into account Disney’s own high requirements for the safety and wellbeing of their Cast Members and Guests. Time will tell what happens, but with more clear guidelines to follow, we’re hopeful that as cases continue to lower in Orange County and across California, that the magic can return once more.