- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Governor gives update on COVID-19 vaccine equity plan focusing on hardest-hit communities
Officials with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration released details of the plans to reporters on Wednesday night, ahead of the governor’s discussion of them in a Thursday press conference in Stockton.
The new vaccine equity plan will focus 40 percent of the vaccine supply on more than 400 zip codes across the state where an estimated eight million people live.
Those areas were identified through the California Healthy Places Index. In that index, those areas are in the lowest of four quartiles.
Newsom said the lowest quartile is most impacted with the disease burden, thus the new focus, which is how he said progress will be made toward dropping case rates and reopening the state.
In offering an example of the inequities the new vaccine plan is attempting to address, Newsom said households making less than $40,000 have had an infection rate more than twice that of households making $120,000 or more a year.
At the same time, those higher-income households have a vaccination rate nearly twice of that of their lower-income counterparts, the governor said.
Officials said the state is committed to doing better when it comes to dealing with those inequities.
On Thursday, the California Department of Public Health released to Lake County News a list of the state’s 1,678 zip codes, of which 446 are ranked in the lowest quartile of the Healthy Places Index.
Among those 446 targeted zip codes are six in Lake County: Clearlake, Clearlake Oaks, Finley, Lucerne, Nice and Upper Lake.
Once two million vaccines are administered in California’s lowest-quartile communities and case rates stabilize, Newsom said it will allow for a “modest loosening” of the tiers in the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy.
As of Thursday, Newsom said the state was at the 1.6 million vaccination threshold for those communities and expects to reach the two million mark within the next few weeks.
Officials had said on Wednesday that by the time they reach four million vaccinations in that vaccine equity quartile, the blueprint would be updated again.
The state said that in the coming weeks, the MyTurn app and the California COVID-19 Hotline at 833-422-4255 will reserve appointment slots in the lowest-quartile communities for child-care workers, low-income Californians over the age of 65, agricultural workers, regional center and independent living center consumers (serving first HPI quartile zip codes).
In related news, nearly 10 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered statewide, with Lake County up to 14,596 doses administered, the California Department of Public Health reported Thursday.
California’s seven-day positivity rate dropped to 2.2 percent and the 14-day rate was at 2.6 percent, the California Department of Public Health said.
Newsom also reported that California is updating its guidance on masking and encouraging people to “double down” by asking that those who wear cloth masks use two masks rather than just one.
The new masking guidance also addresses how to choose masks and get the most out of their use.
Newsom said the goal is to get to the day when the blueprint is no longer necessary. “As more people are vaccinated and more vaccines are available, especially in our most impacted communities, we can envision a day when California can enter the ‘green tier’ – in which strict public health measures will no longer be needed.”
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