Tuesday morning there was some promising news on the COVID-19 front in Kern County. Public Health reported that one of the three metrics needed to move into the orange tier has been met.

"Our testing positivity is 4.4 percent, which is lower, which is terrific and in fact now meets the orange tier," explained Matt Constantine, director of Kern County Public Health.

That's down almost a full percentage point from last week.

The other two metrics that are needed include the daily case rate and the health equity metric. Kern County's numbers for those two metrics are still meeting the red tier. In order to officially move into the orange tier, all three metrics must be met for two weeks.