California begins stay-at-home orders starting Sunday night
California had the highest number of both COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations on Saturday
According to CNN, Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley will be under strict stay-at-home orders after the remaining capacity of the region’s intensive care units fell below 15 percent.
California governor Gavin Newsome issued the mandate earlier in the week in an effort to decrease the growing number of COVID-19 hospitalizations. The mandate will go into effect Sunday at 11:50 p.m. for 27 million residents in the region.
The order will remain in place for at least three weeks while the San Francisco Bay Area order will remain in effect until January 4, 2021 though the Bay’s remaining hospital capacity is currently at 21.2 percent as of Friday.
The order will be lifted only if those region’s ICU capacity either meets or exceeds 15 percent. California’s COVID information site states that the progress will be monitored on a weekly basis.
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The Southern California region consists of heavily populated counties including Los Angeles, San Diego, and Orange.
According to CNN, California had the highest number of both COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations on Saturday with 25,000 new infections reported and 10,200 hospitalized.
Chris Farnitano, director of Contra Costa Health, said Friday that California wasn’t currently in shape t wait for restrictions to begin at a later date and that the need to prevent full hospitalization capacity was urgent.
“I don’t think we can wait for the state’s new restrictions to go into effect later this month. We must act swiftly to save as many lives as we can. This is an emergency,” Farnitano said.
California Department of Public Health released a statement on Saturday saying that regions may be “eligible to exit from the order and return to the Blueprint for a Safer Economy on December 28 if ICU capacity projections for the following month are above or equal to 15 percent.”
The statement called for the closure of non-essential businesses “including bars, breweries, distilleries, and wineries (except for production, manufacturing, and retail), hair salons and barbershops, and personal care services.” It noted that restaurants, retail and shopping centers and hotels will have “additional modifications” in addition to having 100 percent masking and social distancing practices.
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Schools, non-urgent medical and dental care will remain open with preventative measures in place to prevent further spread of the coronavirus.
The statement noted 1,311,635 coronavirus confirmed cases to date and 19,791 coronavirus-related deaths since the start of the pandemic in March.
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