California will begin to require counties to bring down coronavirus infection rates in disadvantaged communities that have been harder hit by the pandemic, a move that could slow the methodical reopening of the nation's most populous state. The complex new rules set in place an “equity metric” that
1 / 3Virus Outbreak CaliforniaA man wearing a face mask walks past a mural Thursday, Oct. 1, 2020, in South Central Los Angeles. California's plan to safely reopen its economy will begin to require counties to bring down coronavirus infection rates in disadvantaged communities that have been harder hit by the pandemic.
The measure could further put the brakes on the state's conservative approach to a return to business as usual after a more rapid reopening of a larger segment of the economy in the spring, including allowing bars and indoor restaurant dining, was accompanied by surge of infections in early summer. Dr. Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, director of the Center for Reducing Health Disparities at the University of California, Davis, said it was an innovative approach to controlling the epidemic that he hasn't been applied elsewhere in the U.S.
Infections that may be isolated to disadvantaged communities can quickly spread beyond those boundaries as more businesses reopen, more people return to work and people travel from widely. But Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist at University of California, San Francisco, said the rules will support efforts by health officers who have been pressured to reopen more quickly.
But she said the state’s metric doesn’t address some of the problems that made low-income communities so vulnerable to the pandemic in the first place, such as a lack of access to health care, distrust of government authorities and the need to work.
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