Vulnerable neighborhoods in Central CA to get more COVID-19 vaccine doses, check your zip code here
About 40% of the state's vaccine allotment will be distributed to those Californians living in areas most at risk for the coronavirus.
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Another new vaccine plan is going into effect for California.
State leaders are promising more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine will be set aside for residents in vulnerable neighborhoods in Central California.
Governor Gavin Newsom confirmed on Thursday that about 40% of the state's vaccine allotment will be distributed to those Californians living in areas most at risk for the coronavirus.
RELATED: CA to loosen reopening tier requirements as more vaccines reach vulnerable areas
Those doses will be spread out among 400 ZIP codes, making about 8 million people eligible for vaccines very soon.
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The governor did not offer much in the way of details, but he did say many of the eligible neighborhoods are in Los Angeles County and the Central Valley.
They were determined by the state's Healthy Places Index, which measures criteria including education and income levels.
The new plan promises to get those living in vulnerable communities vaccinated sooner rather than later.
An estimated 1.6 million doses have already been given in those designated neighborhoods.
While visiting Stockton on Thursday, the governor said once that number reaches 2 million, the state will make it easier for counties to move through the reopening tiers.
Right now counties in the purple tier, including Fresno, can move to the less restrictive red tier when there are 7 or fewer new cases per 100,000 people a day. But the new plan would ease that metric to allow 10 new cases per 100,000.
Local California Restaurant Association President Chuck Van Fleet says Thursday's news is like a carrot being dangled in front of business owners.
"It's just frustrating. Ok they're going to raise it to ten but the whole state averages like a 10.57 so that means if you're higher than that then you can't get into it," he says.
He was hoping to hear more tangible information from the governor that would allow restaurants like his Vino Grille and Spirits to reopen quicker.
"It's basically saying we're going to do something to get you open but we're not going to tell you what it is. So it is a disappointment that there were no more facts to it and there wasn't a plan in place and there wasn't something that we could actually look at that's hard evidence," he says.
