California: Newsom says state nears target to allow counties to expand business openings
California will likely hit its statewide target of delivering at least 2 million vaccine doses in underserved areas by Friday, a key benchmark that will lower the threshold for letting county officials enact further business reopenings, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday.
Once those 2 million doses are delivered — California was at 1.9 million, Newsom said — a county can move from the state’s most-restrictive purple tier to the second most-restrictive red tier if the new daily case rate is fewer
than 10 per 100,000 rather than the current seven per 100,000. Counties under the new case rate benchmark could officially enter the red tier 48 hours after the state passes the vaccination target.
For Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties, which have been under 10 daily cases per 100,000 people for two weeks, they could enter the red tier as soon as Sunday, with approval from state and local health authorities. That would set the stage for reopening high schools and middle schools, as well as many indoor activities, such as dining and going to a movie — though with severely reduced capacity.
In Riverside County, where case rates dropped below 10 cases per 100,000 people just this week, it likely would be eligible for the red tier after new case rates are reported on Tuesday.
Many other counties up and down the state are in the same position. Local health jurisdictions — generally counties but sometimes individual cities — must update their health orders to loosen restrictions.
The quick change in policy had some county officials scrambling to fully understand the significance of the move and how exactly it would affect their reopening plans.
In Orange County, officials were still preparing to begin reopening more sectors under the red tier following the state’s updated case rate reports Tuesday.
Orange County officials — at Wednesday’s press conference to mark the opening of a new mass vaccination site at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove — repeated expectations that a variety of businesses would get the official green light to open next Wednesday under the current bar of falling below 7.0 cases per 100,000. This week marked the first time Orange County met the standard, reporting 6.0 cases per 100,000.
“So even though the 2 million mark will be hit this Friday, or this weekend, the threshold for red tier will move up to 10 (new cases per day per 100,000), but we’re already there, so it won’t affect us,” said Dr. Clayton Chau, Orange County Health Care Agency director and county health officer.
Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett said whether or not the county’s tier movement speeds up, the state hitting its marks earlier is good news for everyone.
Orange County’s case count has been hovering on the edge of the red tier, so the change to that metric “just gives us that extra reassurance that even with a spike, we’re not going to have to revert back to purple,” she said.
And with OC’s other two key numbers already meeting even less restrictive metrics, Bartlett said, “There’s a really good possibility that by the time Disney opens at the end of April, we could be in the orange tier” — which would allow the theme park to open at 25% capacity instead of 15%.
San Bernardino County, too, would qualify for the red tier, having reported two weeks under 10 cases per 100,000 as of Tuesday.
In Riverside County, where case rates fell this week to 8.3 per 100,000 people, officials said the county was on track to move into the red tier this coming Wednesday, after two full weeks under 10 cases per 100,000.
Asked Wednesday whether indoor dining will be allowed when L.A. County enters the red tier, county Department of Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said discussions were under way with county supervisors, restaurant industry leaders and others. The county expected to, however, issue red-tier guidelines for restaurants, theaters and other businesses today, she said.
Delivering vaccines in the areas hardest hit by COVID-19 became a priority in recent weeks, as state and local officials noticed distribution to those areas was falling short. The state vowed to allocate at least 40% of doses to the most underserved communities in an effort to inoculate more low-income residents, essential workers and people of color from the coronavirus.
“The expectation in this state needs to be raised in terms of truly delivering on equity,” Newsom said Wednesday from a pop-up vaccination site in South Gate, which recently opened after local community leaders asked the state for help.
Local leaders in South Gate, together with Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia and the Southeast L.A. Collaborative, helped set up the site in a matter of days, with the help of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The site opened Friday, and by Saturday more than 500 people had signed up to receive vaccines; more than 1,000 people were on a waiting list.
“We are making sure that community members are getting shots,” Garcia said.
One way organizers have ensured doses go to local community members has been to bypass the state’s My Turn website for appointments.
The state, Newsom said, was working out how to designate appointment slots by offering single-use booking codes rather than group booking codes, which can be widely disseminated and abused.
As Newsom spotlighted the South Gate site and other efforts to narrow gaps in vaccine disparities, county leaders in Los Angeles and elsewhere were pushing back on an effort to install Blue Shield of California as the overarching vaccine administrator in the state.
Specifically, L.A. County officials said on Tuesday they were concerned the partnership with Blue Shield would create a bureaucratic headache for providers and could actually set back their efforts to address equity by focusing too heavily on performance metrics and possible punishments for not meeting certain goals.
And L.A. County officials were not alone, as several others have pushed back against the Blue Shield plan, with just one county — Kern — so far agreeing to a contract with the insurer.
Officials with many counties have said they believe they are better suited to manage a vast network of providers, which in L.A. County totals more than 400 locations. Officials there don’t necessarily feel comfortable or confident handing the reins over to a giant health insurance company.
Addressing those concerns on Wednesday, Newsom urged patience, saying state officials and Blue Shield will take the next month to work out those details and put any concerns to rest.
Newsom did not say, however, whether the state would penalize counties that still refuse to sign on with Blue Shield or if the state would allow some counties to be exempted.
“We are making progress,” Newsom said. “We will work through these issues.”