Facing deep racial disparities, California unveils equity road map counties must follow to reopen
California public health officials Wednesday evening revealed the final metric that counties must meet before they can further reopen their economies. It’s a complicated marker meant to ensure that communities of color no longer bear the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic.
The new “health equity” measurement had been promised by state officials for several weeks, since California’s new color-coded tier system for economic and social reopening was announced.
It was not immediately clear how the metric would affect Bay Area counties’ ability to progress toward reopening, though it appears that many regions will struggle to bridge large health disparities that mostly impact Latino, Black and Pacific Islander communities.
“Our entire state has come together to redouble our efforts to reduce the devastating toll COVID-19 has had on our Latino, Black and Pacific Islander communities,” said acting State Public Health Officer Dr. Erica Pan in a statement. “This isn’t just a matter of higher cases in these communities — it is an issue of life and death that is hurting all Californians.”
The equity metric takes effect on Oct. 6. It primarily relies on the positive test rate — the percent of coronavirus tests that come back positive, which is widely used as an indicator for when it’s safe to ease restrictions and reopen a local economy. Higher positive test rates indicate the virus is spreading more quickly.The new metric requires each county to ensure that positive test rates in its most disadvantaged neighborhoods do not significantly lag behind the county’s overall positive rate. In order for a county to move to a less-restrictive tier, the disadvantaged neighborhoods — measured by a variety of social, health and economic factors — must come within 5% of the positive test rate required for that tier.
For example: Most of the Bay Area is in the red tier, and to advance to the less-restrictive orange tier requires a positive test rate between 2% and 4.9%. Under the new metric, each county must also prove that the positive test rate for its most disadvantaged neighborhoods is 5.2% or less.
But getting positive test rates to align across communities could prove challenging for many counties. In Alameda County, for instance, parts of East Oakland and Fruitvale have positive test rates between 13% and 15.6% — three times higher than the county’s overall positive test rate of 4.5%, according to county testing data.
Counties that report a lag between positive test rates must submit plans for funding and preventing spread of the coronavirus within these communities.
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