California’s latest COVID vaccine shakeup: Will it improve equity in the Bay Area?

A new COVID-19 vaccine strategy could help immunize more vulnerable Bay Area communities that for weeks have been left behind. But with doses still in short supply, the state’s plan to address inequities in distribution hinges on California’s ability to get more shots. The day after state Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly announced that 40% of California’s vaccines will be earmarked for low-income, disadvantaged communities, experts and local officials were cautiously optimistic the plan will help get vaccines to neighborhoods with high numbers of infections and deaths and disproportionately low numbers of immunizations. Once California has administered 2 million vaccinations in those communities -which Ghaly expects to happen in the next week or two -the state will for some counties to reopen.