(County could turn orange next week)....The County Public Health Department says if the metrics the state has for Imperial County remain low, the county could be promoted to the next tier.

Imperial County is currently in the red tier to economic recovery. Tuesday the state is expected to announce the counties that will graduate to the next tier. For Imperial County that would be the Orange tier. Public Health officials say the county could be orange as early as Wednesday morning. According to the latest COVID numbers released by the County Public Health Department, there are 77 active COVID 19 cases in Imperial County. The number of deaths attributed to COVID 19 remains at 712. There are currently 9 COVID 19 positive patients hospitalized in Imperial County. Officials say this is the first time in about a year that there were single digit hospitalizations. Four COVID 19 positive patients are in Intensive care. The are 7 ICU beds available in the county. New cases per day per 100,000 population is at 4.85. The positivity rate is at 9.37%.