When officials last summer designed the four-tier system, from yellow to purple, which California now uses to decide if people can dine indoors, go to the movies, or meet friends, they didn’t include no green level, a recognition that would return to normal after the pandemic was far away. Now, Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration is preparing to add one.
“The probability of reaching that green level is probably sooner than some of us thought when we looked at summer and fall,” Dr. Mark Ghaly, California’s health secretary, said Thursday.
State officials rely on a complicated formula, including the spread of viruses, to determine which activities are restricted in each county.
But a green designation doesn’t mean “going” to all things. Ghaly said such a label would still mean wearing masks and staying away physically. In an interview, he declined to offer further details on what restrictions would be maintained or provide a vaccination threshold that the state hopes to meet to allow such approval.
Earlier Thursday, state director of public health Dr. Tomas Aragón, predicted that California could achieve herd immunity when about 75% of the population is vaccinated, although this could change as the virus mutates.
The fact that officials are optimistic enough to publicly discuss a green level puts California in a dramatically different place than it was a few weeks ago during the worst rise in the state. Now the rates of cases, hospitalizations and deaths are decreasing and vaccinations are increasing.
On Thursday, Ghaly and other officials, including General Surgeon Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, publicly received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at locations in Los Angeles and Oakland to promote its safety and effectiveness. The short-lived J&J vaccine recently received emergency approval from the federal government.
The supply of single-shot vaccine in California is limited for now, but officials are eager to build confidence in it, especially in Latino and black communities. Recently, the state said counties can open faster when more people are vaccinated in vulnerable neighborhoods.
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Moderna and Pfizer vaccines require two shots, while J&J only requires one dose. While public health officials say it provides strong immunity, some people have been hesitant, worrying that it is not as protective as others.
“What came to my mind when this vaccine came into my arm was to hug my mom again. And I think that’s something too many Californians have gone through since this pandemic started,” Burke said. Harris, who is black.
Cornelia Stevens was one of a few dozen residents lined up at the Los Angeles site. As a member of the California National Guard, he received an email Wednesday night informing him that his military branch was fit for the vaccine.
“I’ve been waiting my turn. I didn’t think my time would come so quickly,” said Stevens, 50.
Under the new reopening plan, counties can more easily move from the more restrictive purple level to the lower red level when two million doses of vaccine have reached residents in California’s most disadvantaged zip codes. Once 4 million doses are administered in these neighborhoods, it will be easier to switch to orange.
When officials set up the system in August, Newsom said it was too early to look forward to a green level that would indicate “get back to things.” 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 counties have come out of the strictest restrictions and major counties like Los Angeles and Orange are expected to do so soon, allowing for a limited indoor dinner and the reopening of movie theaters and gyms. LA County, the most populous in the state with 10 million residents, said it expects to qualify for the red level between Monday and Wednesday next week.
Also Thursday, the state announced new rules for bars and breweries, which have been largely shut down if they don’t serve food. Starting Saturday, non-food breweries and distilleries can open to the outside on the purple and red levels. The state guide says the patrons of both, as well as the wineries, must book and limit their stay to 90 minutes and that the service must end at 8 p.m.
The state has reason to be captivately optimistic, said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, president of the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco. But he worries that the state’s plan to speed up reopening is “too aggressive.”
An estimated 4.4 million people with certain significant medical conditions or disabilities and are at high risk will be eligible for the vaccine on Monday. They will not be asked to provide documentation, but will be asked to sign a self-certification that meets the criteria, the state public health department announced Thursday.
People who work or reside in congregated places, such as detention centers, prisons and homeless shelters, will also be eligible recently, as will public transport workers and airport workers on commercial airlines. also announced the state.
This additional eligibility could create logjams if supply remains limited, Bibbins-Domingo said. At the same time, California must focus on vaccinating disadvantaged neighborhoods to reduce the likelihood of future outbreaks, he said.
“I’m concerned that the real forward and hard aspect of driving to open up with thresholds that are a little easier to meet, frankly, doesn’t end up playing the way we all would like to,” he said.
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