California Reaches Vaccine Equity Goal – Red Tier Likely Within 48 Hours

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On Friday, as expected, the state of California passed the threshold of 2 million vaccine doses in it’s poorest communities. Under a recently adjusted state tier system, that means counties in the purple tier like Sonoma will be eligible to move to the less restrictive red tier within 48 hours.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

In order to insure an equitable distribution of vaccines, California has been prioritizing getting doses to heavily impacted communities. Governor Newsom ordered 40% of vaccine doses set aside for those residents.

Now that the initial goal of 2 million doses have been completed, the rules for reopening in counties across the state change. Instead of 7 new cases on average (per 100 thousand population per day), counties are now allowed to move to the red tier at 10 average cases per day per 100 thousand. This means that Sonoma County, which had an unadjusted case rate of 8.7 and an adjusted daily case rate of 7.8 as of Thursday would be eligible to move to the red tier.

WHEN CAN SONOMA COUNTY MOVE?

Now that the 2 million threshold has been reached, the state reevaluates each county’s performance, and allows those counties that meet the 10 per 100 thousand level to move to the red tier within 48 hours. That means the county and others like it could move to the red tier as soon as Sunday March 14th.

Sonoma County supervisors and county health officials said at a briefing on Wednesday that they were awaiting the state’s decision and that reopening could occur on or before Tuesday March 16th.

RED TIER

At the red tier level restaurants and brewpubs that serve food are able to resume some indoor dining at 25% capacity. Grocery stores can operate at 100% capacity, and other services like gyms, movie theatres and museums can operate at limited indoor capacity.

VACCINES STILL LIMITED

Doses of vaccine reaching Sonoma County continue to be flat, with less than 8 thousand doses expected next week. That has been the case for more than a month. Even with Blue Shield now in charge of vaccine distribution in Sonoma County, supplies are reportedly being diverted to areas of the state with the highest case rates including counties in the Central Valley and parts of Southern California.

In Sonoma County, vaccine eligibility is still limited to residents 65 and older, as well as healthcare, education, childcare and food service (grocery, restaurant, etc) workers, as well as agricultural employees.