California will give 40% of vaccine doses to vulnerable areas

SACRAMENTO, California (AP) – California will begin allocating 40% of all vaccine doses to the state’s most vulnerable neighborhoods in an effort to inoculate those most at risk with coronavirus and open the state’s economy more quickly. .

Two administration officials from Governor Gavin Newsom shared details on Wednesday on condition of anonymity.

The doses will be distributed among 400 CEPs with about 8 million people eligible for injections. Many of the neighborhoods are concentrated in Los Angeles County and the Central Valley. Areas are considered more vulnerable based on metrics such as family income, education level, housing situation and access to transportation.

Once 2 million doses of vaccine are distributed in these neighborhoods, the state will make it easier for counties to go through reopening levels that dictate the reopening of businesses and schools.

At the moment, a county can move from the more restrictive purple layer to the lower red layer based on various metrics, including 7 or fewer new COVID cases per 100,000 people per day over a period of several weeks. This metric will change to 10 new cases or less. In the red layer, companies such as restaurants and gyms may open for internal services with limited capacity.

Also at the red level, schools wishing to access the new state funding must provide face-to-face learning for students from kindergarten through transition to 6th grade and at least one grade each in elementary and high school.

About 1.6 million doses of vaccine have already been administered to people in those 400 CEPs, and the state will reach the 2 million mark in the next two weeks, officials said.

As soon as the state distributes 4 million doses in these neighborhoods, it will revise the metrics to enter the even less restrictive levels of orange and yellow.

Newsom called the estate “Estrela do Norte” of the state. However, community health clinics focused on serving low-income and vulnerable Californians say they are not receiving enough doses.

The changes mark a new round of twists in California’s vaccination and reopening plans. People aged 65 and over, farmers, educators and emergency service workers can also receive injections.

More counties are already moving to the red level as the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths decreases. The average test positivity rate of 2.2% in the state in 7 days is a record low.

Authorities are making it easier to go through levels of reopening, arguing that the likelihood of widespread transmission that can overwhelm hospitals will decrease as more people get vaccinated. This is particularly true because the most vulnerable populations most likely to become seriously ill receive vaccines.

Although race and ethnicity are not explicit factors in the designation of vaccines, the 400 vulnerable postal codes overlap strongly with neighborhoods with the largest population of blacks, Latinos and Asians and the Pacific Islands, officials said.

Los Angeles County may move on to the next reopening phase with fewer restrictions as early as next week, although any real suspension of coronavirus-related restrictions will not happen immediately, county officials said on Wednesday.

Most counties in the San Francisco Bay Area have moved on to the next phase, which allows restaurants and cinemas to open indoors at 25% capacity and gyms to operate at 10% capacity.