Most of California’s 40 million residents will be able to enjoy limited indoor activities during the week, such as eating indoors or watching a movie in a theater. coronavirus matters remain low, government officials said Friday.
Officials said 13 provinces, including Los Angeles, could open Sunday restaurants, gyms and museums on limited capacity, resulting in the state reaching a $ 2 million benchmark to produce more vaccines in low-income communities get. Another 13 provinces are expected to reopen on Wednesday under a different benchmark.
Next week, the state expands the suitability for the still scarce vaccination.
Which provinces can reopen on Sunday and why?
Governor Gavin Newsom announced last week that he would set aside 40% of the vaccine for residents of about 400 zip codes that the state considers most vulnerable based on criteria such as household income, access to health care and education levels.
The point is to bind reopening standards to ensure that the people most affected by the pandemic are protected from the virus, he said. Once the state reaches 2 million doses administered in the zip codes, which it did on Friday, the threshold to move from the most restrictive level slows down in a color-coded four-level system adopted by the state in August.
Previously, provinces could move from the press level to the bottom red level based on statistics that include the number of new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people per day over a period of a few weeks. The threshold for entering the red level is now moving from 7 cases per 100,000 inhabitants to 10 cases.
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The provinces that are eligible to reopen within 48 hours (Sunday) include Contra Costa and Sonoma in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. San Bernardino and Orange said they would do so Sunday, though officials in LA said they would wait until Monday.
What about the other provinces?
San Diego, Sacramento, Riverside and Ventura are among 13 additional counties that are expected to reopen Wednesday through the normal redistribution process that takes place every Tuesday.
San Joaquin and Santa Barbara are in this category. The hard-hit provinces of Kern and Fresno in the central valley remain in the most restrictive level.
Who is eligible for the vaccine on Monday?
The state institutes vaccinations for approximately 4.4 million people aged 16-64 with disabilities and certain health conditions, including severe obesity, type 2 diabetes, chronic stage 4 or higher kidney disease and Down syndrome.
The California guidelines do not require medical documentation; instead, people will have to testify that they are eligible. It reduces access barriers, but it also opens up a gap for fixed loop jumpers.
San Francisco goes a step further than the state by expanding the permitted categories and adding people who are deaf, HIV-positive, or who have behavioral problems, including serious mental health or drug use disorders, to be vaccinated.
Dr. Paul Simon, head of science at LA County, said people would be asked to sign an attestation if they could not provide documentation. “We certainly hope that people will not try to take advantage of the situation and be honest,” Simon said.
The state is also expanding the suitability for transportation workers and residents and workers of homeless shelters, prisons and detention centers. They are eligible for education for teachers, food and agricultural workers, health care workers and the elderly aged 65 and over.
What is the status of the new vaccine system in California?
At the end of January, Newsom announced that insurer Blue Shield would set up and administer a new vaccine detection and delivery system. The state’s 58 provinces and three cities with public health departments will have to use the state’s My Turn system to make appointments.
Blue Shield is expected to take control on March 31. But Santa Clara County has refused to sign a contract with the insurer, saying it can vaccinate its residents better with a dating system that is better than the state’s system.
Blue Mark Shield CEO Paul Markovich said on Friday that more than half of local health law areas will switch to My Turn or will switch soon, he said.
My Turn is ideal for scheduling appointments at mass vaccination sites, but it is not so good at cutting out places for vulnerable populations at smaller clinics, said Joe Prado, manager of the community health department in Fresno County. He expects the state online portal to improve.
“We are going to live with these two systems for a while longer,” he said.