In the chaotic early weeks of the pandemic, health officers from six Bay Area counties took a bold step to slow the spread of the virus. They directed millions of residents to stay home in what amounted to the nation’s first — and at the time strictest — shelter-in-place order. But those first orders held a critical flaw: They didn’t include clear strategies to protect essential workers whose jobs made it impossible for them to stay home. In California, 55 percent of Latinos work in those front-line essential jobs, according to an analysis from the University of California, Berkeley Labor Center.