State to devote 40% of vaccines to many low-income communities

To expand vaccine access to poor communities, California will dedicate 40% of its vaccine supplies to people at the bottom 25% of the state’s socioeconomic ladder, State Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly announced on Wednesday night.

This new distribution plan will be linked to another major change: Eased criteria in the color-coded plan for counties to re-open non-essential businesses, aiding the economy, he said.

“We believe that we can make deep progress by allocating a significant amount of the state’s vaccine to these communities to ensure that we protect the most vulnerable and these communities at large, in a very deliberate and direct way,” Ghaly said.

Initially, 2 million doses of vaccines will be shipped to communities represented by 400 different zip codes in the poorest regions of the state, especially Los Angeles and the Central Valley.

At the same time, the state will increase the number of allowable COVID-19 cases to allow the opening of more non-essential indoor businesses.

Currently, counties with more than seven daily new cases per 100,000 residents are in the most restrictive purple tier of the state’s color-coded reopening system, which indicates the virus is “widespread.”

Under the new system, counties will be allowed to advance into the red tier — with just some non-essential indoor businesses closed — if they have 10 daily new cases per 100,000 residents.

After those 2 million vaccine doses are distributed, another 4 million doses will be distributed to the same neighborhoods.

At that point, the state will adjust the two other tiers, orange and yellow.