When officials last summer designed the four-level, yellow-to-purple system that California now uses to decide whether people can eat indoors, go to the movies or hang out with friends, they did not include a green level – an acknowledgment that a return to normalcy after the pandemic was far. The government of Govin Newsom is now preparing to add one.
“The probability that you will hit the green level is probably sooner than some of us thought when we looked at summer and autumn,” said dr. California Gov. Mark Ghaly said Thursday.
Government officials rely on a complex formula, including virus spread, to determine what activities are restricted in each province.
But a green name does not mean “go” for all things. Ghaly said such a label still means wearing masks and staying physically far away. He declined in an interview to offer more details on what restrictions would be maintained or to provide a threshold for vaccinations the state hopes to meet to give such permission.
Earlier Thursday, the state director of public health, dr. Tomas Aragón, predicts that California can achieve herd immunity when about 75% of the population is vaccinated, although this may change as the virus mutates.
That officials are optimistic enough to discuss a green level in public puts California in a dramatically different place than it was a few weeks ago during the worst increase in the state. Now the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths is decreasing and vaccinations are increasing.
Ghaly and other officials, including dr. Surgeon General Nadine Burke Harris on Thursday received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in public at sites in Los Angeles and Oakland to promote its safety and efficacy. The one-short J&J vaccine recently received an emergency permit from the federal government.
California’s supply of the single-vaccine is limited for now, but officials are eager to build trust in it, especially in black and Latino communities. The state recently said provinces could open up faster once more people are vaccinated in vulnerable neighborhoods.
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The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines both require two shots, while J&J requires only one dose. Although public health officials say it provides strong immunity, some people have become reluctant and worried that it is not as protective as others.
“The thing that came to my mind when that vaccine went into my arm was to hug my mother again. And I think that’s something that too many Californians have not been up to since this pandemic started,” Burke Harris said. , which is Black, said.
Cornelia Stevens was among a few dozen residents who performed at the Los Angeles site. As a member of the California National Guard, she received an email Wednesday night informing her that her military branch is eligible for the vaccine.
“I was waiting my turn. I did not think my time would come so fast,” Stevens, 50, said.
Under the new reopening plan, provinces will be able to move more easily from the most restricted purple level to the lower red level when 2 million vaccine doses have reached California’s most disadvantaged zip codes. Once 4 million doses are administered in those neighborhoods, it will be easier to switch to orange.
When officials introduced the system in August, Newsom said it was too early to look ahead to a green level that would indicate ‘going back to the way things were’. The Democratic governor said Wednesday that officials have been working on a green level for months “in anticipation of this bright light at the end of this tunnel.”
Nearly half of the state’s 58 states have drawn some of the strictest restrictions, and large counties such as Los Angeles and Orange are expected to do so soon, allowing limited indoor dining and reopening movie theaters and gyms. LA County, the state’s most populous state with ten million people, said it expects to qualify for the red level between Monday and Wednesday of next week.
The state also on Thursday announced new rules for pubs and breweries, which are largely closed if they do not serve food. From Saturday, breweries and distilleries that do not serve food can open outside in the purple and red levels. According to the state guidance, patrons at as well as wineries must make reservations and limit their stay to 90 minutes and that the service must end until 20:00. Pubs that do not serve food can only open in the orange level.
The state has reason to be cautiously optimistic, said dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, said. But she is concerned that the state’s plan to speed up the reopening is ‘too aggressive’.
It is estimated that 4.4 million people with certain significant high-risk medical conditions or disabilities will be eligible for the vaccine on Monday. They will not be required to provide documentation, but they will be asked to sign a self-declaration that they meet the criteria, the Department of Public Health announced Thursday.
People who work or live in town halls, such as detention centers, prisons and homeless shelters, will also be eligible, as well as public transportation and airport staff for commercial airlines, the state also announced.
Bibbins-Domingo said it could be more eligible if supply was limited. At the same time, California needs to focus on vaccinating disadvantaged neighborhoods to reduce the likelihood of future outbreaks, she said.
“I’m worried that the right forward-looking, hard-working appearance to start with the thresholds, which is frankly honest, will not play quite the way we all want it to,” she said.
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