California warns of regional lockdowns

COVID surges overwhelm state's hospitals

SACRAMENTO • The number of U. S. COVID-19 hospitalizations topped 100,000 for the first time, as California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday said he was likely to impose stay-at-home orders on every region of the state except the San Francisco Bay Area later this week.

California's new policy will take effect in any of five designated geographic regions 48 hours after the capacity of the intensive care units of their local hospitals falls to 15 per cent or less, Newsom told reporters on Thursday.

“If we don't act now, our hospital system will be overwhelmed,” Newsom told reporters.

In affected regions, bars, wineries, personal services and salons will be closed, while restaurants will be relegated to takeout and delivery and retail capacity will be limited to 20 per cent, Newsom said. Schools will remain open.

It is one of the most restrictive of a series of state initiatives to curb the next wave of the disease, which threatens to take 3,000 lives a day in the United States over the next two months.

Globally, the death toll on Thursday from COVID-19 was 10,000 people every day on average over the past week, amounting to a total of 1.5 million lives lost since the start of the pandemic, according to Reuters' count.

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Wednesday warned that December, January and February were likely to be “the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation.”

The United States could start losing around 3,000 people each day over the next two months.

Hospitals across the U.S. are stretched to their limits, driving political leaders to impose restrictions like California's in order to prevent the health-care system from becoming overwhelmed.

In the Midwest, Gov. Mike Dewine said on Thursday that Ohio's hospitals “not only remain in crisis but the crisis is worsening,” as his state reported its fifth-highest case count of the pandemic. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said on Thursday she may extend a three-week “pause” on some private and economic activities in her state because of the strain on hospitals.

Vaccines offer a ray of hope, with two promising candidates poised to receive emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this month.

But inoculations face opposition from significant numbers of Americans who reject medical science, as well as from those wary of the safety of vaccines developed at record speed.

A Gallup poll released on Nov. 17 found 58 per cent of Americans say they would get a COVID-19 vaccine, up from 50 per cent in September.