California gives 40% of vaccine doses to sensitive areas

SACRAMENTO, California (AP) – California will begin reserving 40% of all vaccine doses for the state’s most vulnerable neighborhoods in an effort to inoculate those most at risk from the coronavirus and speed up the state’s economy to get open.

Two officials from Gavin Newsom’s government shared details on Wednesday on condition of anonymity.

The doses will be distributed among 400 zip codes with approximately 8 million people eligible for admission. Many of the neighborhoods are concentrated in Los Angeles County and the Central Valley. The areas are considered most vulnerable based on statistics such as family income, education level, housing status and access to transport.

Once 2 million vaccine doses are dispensed in those neighborhoods, the state will make it easier for counties to go through reopening strokes dictating the reopening of businesses and schools.

Currently, a province can move from the most restrictive purple level to the lower red level based on various statistics, including having 7 or fewer new COVID cases per 100,000 people per day over a period of several weeks. That statistic is changed to 10 new applications or less. In the red level, companies such as restaurants and gyms with limited capacity can open indoor services.

Also, at the red level, schools seeking access to new government funding must have transitional kindergarten students through grade 6 to face-to-face learning and at least one class in middle and high school.

About 1.6 million vaccine doses have already been given to people in those 400 zip codes, and the state will hit the 2 million mark in the next two weeks, officials said.

Once the state dispenses 4 million doses in those neighborhoods, it will revise the statistics to get into the even less restrictive orange and yellow levels.

Newsom has called equity the ‘North Star’ of the state. But community clinics that focus on serving the low-income and vulnerable Californians say they haven’t been given enough doses.

The changes mark another round of twists and turns in California’s vaccination and reopening plans. People aged 65 and over, farm workers, educators, and counselors are also eligible for admission.

More counties have already moved to the red layer as the number of files, hospital admissions and deaths decreases. The 2.2% average positivity rate of the state for 7 days is a low point.

Officials are making it easier to move through reopening levels, arguing that the likelihood of widespread transmission that can overwhelm hospitals will diminish as more people are vaccinated. This is especially the case because the most vulnerable population groups who are more likely to become seriously ill get the admissions.

While race and ethnicity are not explicit factors in pinpointing vaccinations, the 400 vulnerable zip codes overlap strongly with neighborhoods with a larger population of blacks, Latinos and Asian and Pacific islanders, officials said.

Los Angeles County could enter the next phase of reopening with fewer restrictions next week, although the actual lifting of coronavirus-related restrictions would not take place immediately, county officials said earlier Wednesday.

Most of the San Francisco Bay Area counties have progressed to the next phase, which will allow restaurants and cinemas to open indoors at 25% capacity and gyms at 10% capacity.