In order to help California citizens better understand activity restrictions between counties, Governor Newsom has implemented a new four-tier system of re-opening that will take effect Aug. 31.

This new status system, introduced as “A Blueprint For A Better Economy,” will serve as a guide showing each county’s current state and what restrictions are like for different activities and businesses. The public will be able to view this by entering their zip code and desired activity in the COVID-19 portion of the state’s website.

The color-coded tiers show positive cases in purple, red, orange or yellow which aligns cases as widespread, substantial, moderate or minimal and will be replacing all former state mandates until this point, including the state’s “watchlist,” which will now be categorized as “widespread” in the purple tier.

Counties previously deemed on the “watchlist” saw the majority of indoor activities halting operations however, the now purple tier communities will allow barber shops and hair salons to reopen “with certain modifications.”

Currently, 38 counties are in the purple tier along with nine red counties, eight orange and three yellow. A county will remain in a tier for a minimum of three weeks before being able to advance tiers as they are being watched by the California Department of Public Health.

Prior to this, the main standard in understanding openings and closures was keeping the positivity rate under eight percent for 14 consecutive days. California is one of 11 states that are currently still fluctuating on their open and reopen status.

“We’ve learned a lot over the last few months, on how this virus spreads,” Newsom said on Friday. “COVID-19 will be with us for a long time and we need to adapt.”