California announced Friday that it has administered more than 2 million doses of vaccine to people with vulnerable, low-income zip codes, helping counties like San Diego reopen operations more quickly.
When the equity measure is met, it becomes easier to meet the criteria for a province to move within the levels of the state’s color-coded reopening plan. California expects San Diego to meet the new reopening criteria on Tuesday, meaning the county will move from the most restrictive purple low to the red level as early as Wednesday.
San Diego County is expected to move to the Red Tier on March 16, and the changes will take effect the following day.
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Gavin Newsom announced last week that it would set aside 40% of the vaccine for residents of about 400 zip codes that the state deems most vulnerable based on statistics such as family income, access to health care and education levels.
The point is to link reopening standards to ensure that the people most affected by the pandemic are protected from the virus. While race and ethnicity are not explicit factors in designating vaccinations, zip codes overlap strongly with neighborhoods with a larger population of Black, Latino and Asian and Pacific Islander residents, officials said.
California passed a four-level color-coded system in August that determines how much activity is allowed in each county. New tier allocations will be announced on Tuesday.
Previously, counties could move from the most restrictive purple level to the lower red level based on statistics including the number of new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people per day over a period of several weeks. The threshold for entering the red layer goes from 7 cases per 100,000 inhabitants to 10 cases.
What can reopen in San Diego?
Once San Diego County moves on to the red coat of California’s reopening blueprint, the restrictions on restaurants, gyms, and other businesses and activities will begin to disappear.
Many industries have only been active outdoors since last summer, but starting next Wednesday, indoor activities can resume for San Diego restaurants, gyms, museums and more.
A shift to the red level means that eateries can dine indoors again with a capacity of 25% or 100 people – whichever is less. The same goes for movie theaters. Museums, zoos and aquariums can reopen the indoor activities with modifications, including 25% capacity. And gyms can reopen indoors with a capacity of 10%.
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A shift to the red level means that eateries can dine indoors again with a capacity of 25% or 100 people – whichever is less. The same goes for movie theaters. Museums, zoos and aquariums will be able to reopen the indoor activities with adjustments, including 25% capacity. And gyms can reopen indoors with a capacity of 10%.
Additionally, schools that previously required exemptions to reopen personal instruction will no longer need to apply, but changes will have to be made.
Indoor stores can increase their capacity from 25% to 50%.
While San Diego may be eligible to move to a less restrictive level, this does not automatically mean the move will take place, but a San Diego County spokesperson said, “We are satisfied with the direction we are taking and hope to take a step forward. already next week. “
There are also some reopening changes starting April 1. Since San Diego will be in the red category by then, outdoor live events such as sports games and live music can have guests up to 20% capacity, instead of less than 100 people in the purple tier.
Also from April 1, theme parks in red tier counties will be able to have guests up to 15% capacity even in their indoor facilities, although indoor dining should remain closed.
This week, the state also announced new rules for bars and breweries, which are largely closed if they don’t serve food. Starting Saturday, breweries and distilleries that don’t serve food can open outside in both the purple and red tiers. State guidelines say that customers at both, as well as wineries, must have reservations and limit their stay to 90 minutes and the service must end at 8 p.m. Bars that don’t serve food cannot open until the orange layer.
What is next?
Once the state manages 4 million shots in these neighborhoods, officials say they will update the criteria to move to the next levels of orange and yellow.
“While we have reached a milestone today, we still have a lot of work to do to ensure that we can end this pandemic,” said Tomás Aragón, CDPH director and state public health officer. “We should all do our part by getting vaccinated as soon as it is our turn, continuing to wear masks and giving up physical distance to keep our communities safe.”
About half of the state’s 58 counties have now moved out of the strictest restrictions, allowing for restricted indoor dining and the reopening of movie theaters and gyms.
Officials across California are considering what things will look like in the most populous state in the country once millions of people are vaccinated and are moving on to phase out restrictions on meetings and businesses that have changed lives for a year.
When officials last summer designed the four-level yellow-to-purple system that California now uses to decide whether people can dine indoors, go to the movies, or get together with friends, they didn’t have a green level – an acknowledgment that a return to normalcy after the pandemic was a long way off. Now Gavin Newsom’s government is preparing to add one.
“The odds of hitting that green layer are probably sooner than some of us thought when we looked at summer and fall,” said Dr. Mark Ghaly, California’s health secretary, Thursday.
State officials rely on a complicated formula, including virus spread, to determine which activities are restricted in each province.
But a green label does not mean “go” for all things. Ghaly said such a label would still mean wearing masks and staying physically aloof. He declined in an interview to provide more details on what restrictions would be enforced or to provide a threshold of vaccinations that the state hopes to meet to allow for such a green light.
Earlier Thursday, Dr. Tomas Aragón, director of public health, said that California could achieve herd immunity when about 75% of the population is vaccinated, although that could change as the virus mutates.