Valley under stay at home order
Region’s ICU capacity falls to 6.6 percent
Tulare County and the San Joaquin Valley went under a Regional Stay Home Order as Hospital Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Capacity in the region dropped below 15% availability triggering the order effective in
Tulare County beginning Sunday, December 6 at 11:59 p.m.
As of Sunday the state reported the Valley’s ICU capacity had fallen to 6.6 percent.
The new regional order is a proactive measure in response to the rapid rise of COVID-19 case rates and hospitalizations, threatening to overwhelm the health care delivery system.
The Regional Stay Home Order requires
Tulare County residents to stay at home as much as possible, prohibits private gatherings of any size, closes operations for certain sectors and requires 100 percent masking and physical distancing in all other sectors allowed to operate under the new regional order. Schools currently open under approved waivers can remain open and retailers can operate at no more than 20% capacity to reduce exposure risk to COVID-19 as the virus continues to rapidly spread throughout Tulare County and the greater San Joaquin Valley region.
“COVID- 19 continues to spread at alarming rates in Tulare County, and most concerning are the number of people needing to be hospitalized for COVID-19,” shared Dr. Karen Haught, Tulare County Public Health
Officer. “It is imperative we take these protective actions in order to not overwhelm our local hospitals. The measures we all need to take is to avoid any gatherings outside our household, wear a face covering, social distance, and wash our hands. These are vital to decrease transmission of COVID-19.”
The San Joaquin Valley region will remain within the Regional Stay at Home Order status for at least three weeks. Tulare County will be eligible to come off the Regional Stay at Home Order after three weeks if local hospital ICU capacity projected four weeks out reaches 15 percent. Once this is achieved, then Tulare County will return to the Purple tier. The terms of the Regional Stay at Home Order closely mirror the March statewide Stay at Home Order, with some variations.