Newsom announces stay-at-home order
Will be determined by regional ICU capacity
Many parts of California could soon face deeper restrictions under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest plan to control the coronavirus outbreak surging throughout the state.
On Thursday, Newsom announced a new, regional stay-athome order, which will force additional restrictions in any of the five regions of the state where fewer than 15% of intensive care units remain available. None of the regions — defined as Northern California, the Bay Area, Greater Sacramento, the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California — currently meet the threshold but some could “in the next day or two,” Newsom said.
“The bottom line is, if we don’t act now, our hospital system will be overwhelmed,” Newsom said at a virtual news conference Thursday afternoon. “And if we don’t act now, the death rate will continue to climb and we’ll see more lives lost. That’s why today, we are … pulling that emergency brake … in a much more broad and comprehensive way.”
Once a region’s ICU capacity falls below 15%, a rash of new restrictions will take effect 48 hours later. The new order resembles California’s initial shelter-inplace order from the spring but with some modifications.
Schools that are already open will be allowed to remain open, and retail will be allowed to remain open at 20% capacity. Sports and other entertainment will be allowed to continue, though without any live audiences. Restaurants will be restricted to takeout only, and places of worship will be forced outdoors. Hotels and offices can remain open only for “critical infrastructure” employees.
Forced to close entirely: all personal care services, including barbershops and nail salons; playgrounds inside and outside; bars, breweries and wineries; and all entertainment centers, including amusement parks, movie theaters, card rooms and casinos.
Under the new order, travel is prohibited “except as necessary for permitted activities,” but state officials encouraged residents to continue participating in safer outdoor activities.
Once the order takes effect, it will remain in place for at least three weeks. At that time, individual counties would be reassigned tiers within the reopening blueprint if the region’s capacity is projected to be above 15%. If the region is still below that threshold, the order would remain in effect and be reassessed on a weekly basis.
In the state’s projections, every region but the Bay Area will reach that threshold within the next week. The Bay Area “may have a few extra days,” Newsom said, and is projected to reach 15% capacity by midto late-December. The Southern California region is the largest of the five, encompassing more than half of the state’s population. More than 23 million people in 11 counties from San Luis Obispo to the Mexican border fall in the region.
The Bay Area region includes about 8.5 million people in the nine counties that traditionally make up the region, plus Santa Cruz and Monterey. The San Joaquin Valley region includes about 4.5 million people from Calaveras to Kern counties, while the Greater Sacramento region covers about 3 million people from Butte to Alpine counties.