BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — The Kern County Public Health Department said that for the fourth consecutive week, Kern County continues in the red tier on the State’s COVID-19 Blueprint for a Safer Economy, despite a small increase in the county's case rate.

County officials said the countywide adjusted case rate rose slightly this week to 6.4 cases per 100,000 residents, from 6.3 last week. Kern County’s testing rate has increased from l81/100,000 residents to 192.5/100,000 this week. The countywide testing positivity rate remained the same while health equity quartile testing positivity rate went from a 6.3% to 5.4%.

According to Public Health, Kern County’s testing positivity rate actually meets the Orange Tier, or Tier 3 metrics; however, our countywide adjusted case rate and health equity quartile testing positivity rate still fall within the Red Tier metrics. If these two metrics were to improve and actually meet the Orange Tier metrics, the County would be eligible to move forward in the framework to the less restrictive Orange Tier after two consecutive weeks of meeting these metrics. If these metrics worsen, the County could revert into the more restrictive Purple Tier as soon as two weeks from now.

Public Health said Kern will need to continue to increase testing to not only avoid that artificial case rate adjustment, but also slow the transmission of this disease in the community.