Current safety measures

Last updated August 4, 2021 at 11:36 AM

Thanks to millions of vaccinations, California’s economy is open. There are no county tiers, capacity limits, or physical distancing requirements. But we still need some common-sense safety measures until more people are vaccinated.

On this page:

What to do now

COVID-19 has not gone away. To safely go about our daily lives, we need to continue:

  • Vaccinations
  • Masking
  • Testing if you feel sick
  • Other measures to keep ourselves and others safe

Do’s and don’ts for daily life

Restaurants, shopping malls, movie theaters, and most everyday places are open. Protect yourself and others by keeping these common-sense safety steps in mind.

Do

  • Get vaccinated
  • Wear a mask where required, in public indoor spaces, and on public transit
  • Follow safety rules for mega-events
  • Get tested if you’re sick
  • Honor mask rules in place at a private business
  • Get tested if required by your workplace
  • Wear a mask when you travel

Don’t

  • Lose your proof of vaccination
  • Think you can’t get the virus or pass it on because you feel well
  • Assume everyone is vaccinated
  • Expect all COVID-19 rules everywhere to be lifted
  • Travel into the U.S. without proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test
  • Travel if you’re sick

Read the CDC’s How to Protect Yourself and Others.

Masks

California has statewide guidelines for wearing masks. Your local area may have more. Check your area’s COVID-19 website.

Masks are still required for everyone in some places, such as:

  • Public transit
  • Hospitals
  • Long-term care facilities
  • Adult and senior care facilities
  • Correctional facilities
  • Homeless shelters, emergency shelters, and cooling centers
  • Indoors in K-12 schools, childcare, and other youth settings

In other indoor public settings, masks are required for unvaccinated people and recommended for everyone. Examples:

  • Retail
  • Restaurants
  • Theaters
  • Family entertainment centers
  • Meetings
  • State and local government offices that serve the public

Read more on our Masks page and CDPH’s Guidance for the Use of Face Coverings.

Travel

California no longer has a travel advisory in effect. There is no state recommendation to test and quarantine before and after travel.

However, the CDC asks that you do the following:

  • Delay travel until you’re fully vaccinated
  • If you’re not fully vaccinated, but choose to travel, get tested before and after
  • No matter your vaccination status, wear a mask while on public transportation or in a transportation hub

Get tested if you feel sick, and avoid traveling if you have or may have COVID-19.

For more info, see CDC travel guidelines, the CDPH travel flyer, and the Travel page.

School, camp, and childcare

K-12 schools

Read more on our Education page.

Day camps and other supervised youth activities

Overnight camps

Childcare

Mega-events

Mega-events are indoor events with 5,000 or more people and outdoor events with 10,000 or more people. This includes events like:

  • Conventions, conferences, and expos
  • Concerts, shows, and nightclubs
  • Sporting events
  • Live events and entertainment
  • Fairs, festivals, and parades
  • Theme parks, amusement parks, and water parks
  • Large private events or gatherings
  • Large races, marathons, and endurance events
  • Car shows

For indoor events with 5,000 or more people, attendees must confirm proof of vaccination or negative COVID-19 status in order to attend. 

For outdoor events with 10,000 or more people, it is recommended that attendees confirm proof of vaccination or negative COVID-19 status in order to attend. 

More details about mega-events:

All attendees must follow CDPH’s Guidance for the Use of Face Coverings. These public health requirements and recommendations will be reviewed and reevaluated no later than September 1, 2021.

Workplace safety

There are no physical distancing or capacity limits for businesses and activities.

Covered employers must follow California’s COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS). Certain workplaces, like hospitals and correctional facilities, are required to comply with the Aerosol Transmissible Diseases (ATD) standard instead of the ETS. Find more details in the frequently asked questions about the COVID-19 Prevention ETS.

In some workplaces, like healthcare facilities and congregate settings, the state requires workers to either be fully vaccinated, or get tested regularly for COVID-19 and wear PPE. Workers in these settings must be in compliance by August 23, 2021. See details at State Public Health Officer’s Order of July 26, 2021.

State employees working on-site are also required to be fully vaccinated, or get regular testing and wear masks. Employees must be in compliance by August 2, 2021. See details at CalHR’s Vaccine Verification and Testing Requirements.

Visit Safer At Work to learn more about COVID-19 workplace requirements.

Read more on our Workers and businesses page.

Past restrictions

Reopening California 

California has moved Beyond the Blueprint to safely and fully reopen the economy. 

As of June 15, 2021, the Governor terminated the executive orders that put into place the Stay Home Order and the Blueprint for a Safer Economy. He also phased out the vast majority of executive actions put in place since March 2020 as part of the pandemic response, leaving a subset of provisions that facilitate the ongoing recovery.

The public health order effective June 15 supersedes all prior health orders. The order has limited restrictions, only related to masking and mega-events, as well as settings serving children and youth.

Restrictions that ended on June 15 include:

  • Physical distancing
  • Capacity limits on businesses
  • County tier system

Read the Governor’s orders N-07-21 and N-08-21. Find details in CDPH’s Beyond the Blueprint for Industry and Business Sectors and the Beyond the Blueprint Questions and Answers.

Retiring the Blueprint map

Under the old Blueprint for a Safer Economy framework, every California county was assigned to a risk-level tier. Based on their positivity rate, adjusted case rate, and/or health equity metric (for counties with populations more than 106,000), counties faced varying degrees of activity and capacity restrictions. The weekly status was shown on a map with four tier colors: purple, red, orange, and yellow.

The Blueprint framework was California’s reality from August 2020 to June 2021, but it is no longer in effect. You can find the latest data about your county on the State Dashboard.

See how tier restrictions were assigned and changed, as well as historical county data at CDPH’s Blueprint Data Archive.