San Rafael’s Expands Vaccine Rollout To Underserved Neighborhood

SAN RAFAEL, CA — All Canal neighborhood residents over the age of 16 are now eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations under a new state program that aims to address health care inequities, city officials said Monday.

Marin County is making the vaccine available to all Canal residents under the state’s expanded Healthy Places Index program, which prioritizes underserved communities, city officials said.

All counties with populations great than 106,000 are required by the state to meet an HPI Equity Metric to ensure its most disadvantaged neighborhoods don’t lag significantly behind the county’s overall positivity rate under California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy.

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday announced that all Quartile 1 or 2 HPI residents are eligible for the vaccine regardless of age or occupation at the discretion of their provider.

The move aims to address inequalities in the impact of the pandemic and vaccine rollout, Newsom said in a statement citing data developed by the Public Health Alliance of Southern California.

According to this data, which was the basis for the state’s HPI Equity Metric, the lowest quartile of the HPI has experienced 40 percent of the state’s coronavirus cases and deaths. The death rate among infected people living in households earning less than $40,000 a year is 84 percent higher than that of households taking in $120,000.

“At the same time, California’s wealthiest populations have received 50 percent more vaccinations when compared to the rate of our most vulnerable populations,” Newsom said in a statement.

“This approach recognizes that the pandemic did not affect California communities equally and that the state is committed to doing better.”