Alameda County Meets New Equity Metric - October 1, 2020
Published on October 01, 2020
Alameda County Public Health Department Alameda County Meets New Equity Metric, Allows Elementary Schools to Open if Ready, and Phases in Some Indoor Activities
ALAMEDA COUNTY, CA – Yesterday, September 30, the State announced its COVID-19 health equity metric, which requires counties like ours to ensure that the testing positivity rates in their most disadvantaged neighborhoods, defined as the lowest quartile of the U.S. Census Healthy Places Index for California (HPI), are within the same range as the county’s overall test positivity rate.
This new metric is in addition to the overall testing positivity rate and case rate requirements within the State’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy and will go into effect on October 6. This means that for Alameda County to progress to the next tier, Orange, we must have an adjusted daily case rate between 1 to 3.9 per 100,000, an overall positivity rate between 2 and 4.9%, and our lowest quartile HPI census tracts’ testing positivity must be equal to or less than 5.2%. The health equity metric will not be used to move counties to a more restrictive tier.
COVID-19 has highlighted longstanding systemic inequities and their impact on the overall health and life expectancy. We share the State’s commitment to reducing disparities, and have focused on health equity from the outset of our response. That is why Alameda County has already acted to better serve our Latinx, Black and African American, and Pacific Islander communities, who are disproportionally impacted by COVID-19. This includes services like culturally and linguistically competent case investigation and contact tracing, resources and housing options to support residents so they can safely isolate, and increasing access to testing in communities that are seeing high testing positivity and case rates. Through the Health Care Services Agency alone, the County is slated to spend more than $52M toward community-based response efforts, with a focus on zip codes with the highest COVID-19 rates. click here for more information
Neetu Balram, Public Information Manager
Alameda County Public Health Department