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At least until mid-March, California is reserving 40% of the vaccine doses allocated to the state’s most affected communities, officials said this week.
Low-income populations of color, often frontline workers, have consistently suffered a disproportionate burden of disease.
In response, California Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr Mark Ghaly, Calfiornia’s senior health official, said this week that vaccines would be directed to the poorest and most diverse zip codes in the state. They are displayed on the map above.
Residents of these areas must still be eligible before they can be vaccinated – i.e. people 65 years of age and older, medical workers, teachers and other education workers, as well as a growing number categories of essential workers.
Postal codes have been prioritized based on the Healthy Places Index. It compares conditions in communities across the state based on a series of 25 indicators that shape health and life expectancy, including access to health care, environmental conditions, economic stability and the cost / availability of accommodation.
Forty percent of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the state have occurred in the lowest quartile of the index – where health conditions are the worst, officials said.
Even as case rates are declining in the general population, the infection rate of households earning less than $ 40,000 per year is more than double that of households with income of $ 120,000 or more, officials said. This reflects the vaccination rate: The state’s wealthiest populations are vaccinated at nearly twice the rate of poorer populations, according to the state.
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