Leaders look to reopening, push 1-shot vaccine
LOS ANGELES >> California officials are contemplating what things will look like in the nation’s most populous state once millions of people are vaccinated and they move to phase out restrictions on gatherings and businesses that have altered life for a year.
When officials last summer designed the fourtiered, yellow-to-purple system California now uses to decide whether people can dine indoors, go to the movies or gather with friends, they did not include a green tier — a recognition that a return to normalcy after the pandemic was far off. Now, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration is preparing to add one.
“The likelihood of hitting that green tier is probably sooner than some of us thought when we were looking at the summer and fall,” Dr. Mark Ghaly, California’s health secretary, said Thursday.
State officials rely on a complicated formula, including virus spread, to determine which activities are restricted in each county.
But a green designation won’t mean “go” for all things. Ghaly said such a label would still mean wearing masks and staying physically distant. He declined in an interview to offer more specifics on what restrictions would be maintained or to provide a threshold of vaccinations the state hopes to meet to allow such a go-ahead.
Earlier Thursday, state Public Health Director Dr. Tomas Aragón forecast that California could achieve herd immunity when about 75% of the population has been vaccinated, though that could change as the virus mutates.
That officials are optimistic enough to publicly discuss a green tier puts California in a dramatically different place than it was a few weeks ago during the state’s worst surge. Now case rates, hospitalizations and deaths are on the decline and vaccinations are on the rise.
On Thursday, Ghaly and other officials, including Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, the surgeon general, received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine publicly at sites in Los Angeles and Oakland to promote its safety and efficacy. The one-short J&J vaccine recently received emergency use approval from the federal government.
California’s supply of the single- shot vaccine is limited for now, but officials are eager to build confidence in it, particularly in Black and Latino communities. The state recently said counties can open faster once more people in vulnerable neighborhoods are vaccinated.
The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines both require two shots, while J& J only requires one dose. Although public health officials say it provides strong immunity, some people have been hesitant, worrying that it is not as protective as the others.
“The thing that came into my mind when that vaccine went into my arm was hugging my mom again. And I think that’s something that too many Californians have been without since this pandemic has begun,” said Burke Harris, who is Black.
Under the new reopening plan, counties can more easily move from the most restrictive purple tier to the lower red tier when 2 million vaccine doses have reached residents in California’s most disadvantaged ZIP codes. Once 4 million doses are administered in those neighborhoods, it will be easier to move to orange.