Orange County, Southern California likely to place regional stay-at-home order – Orange County Register

Orange County and all of Southern California were told on Friday evening, December 4, that its decline in intensive care capacity would likely push the region into the most restrictive home stay order since March.

The move, based on a state order, could ban private gatherings of any size, require masks in public and shut down more non-essential businesses.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday the state was on the brink of a severe shortage of intensive care beds and that one of California’s five regions falling below 15% ICU bed availability would trigger for itself a new lockdown for at least three weeks.

Region 5, which includes Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and several other counties in Southern California, has fallen to 13.1% of its critical care bed capacity.

The new state order goes into effect at 12:59 p.m. Saturday and gives local health officials 24 hours to implement regional stay-at-home restrictions, which means Southern California will have until until Sunday afternoon to adopt them.

The order adds new restrictions to the kaleidoscope of corporate and public sector guidelines, once again closing barber shops, playgrounds and museums and forcing restaurants to rely on take-out and delivery orders.

Retailers will need to reduce indoor admission to 20%, although many were already operating at a quarter or half capacity indoors, depending on the purple tier rules. Schools that already teach in person can continue to do so.

At a press conference Thursday, Newsom said the hammer could fall in the most dire areas within days.

State health officials said on Friday that regional intensive care unit capacity figures would be released daily and the day’s update was posted on the state’s COVID-19 website. at the end of the evening.

California Department of Public Health staff did not respond to questions on Friday asking when the next update would arrive, but a spokesperson said state officials would directly notify local health officials when their region would fall below the 15% threshold for intensive care.

Dr Clayton Chau, director of the Orange County Health Care Agency and county health official, made no public announcement on Friday.

As of Thursday, the cluster of 11 Southern California counties, including coastal and inland areas as far north as Mono and as far south as San Diego, collectively had 20.6% of available intensive care beds.

The northern California region, including Humboldt and Shasta counties, was closest to the red line Thursday at 18.6% intensive care capacity.

Taking no chances, a group of Bay Area counties announced on Friday that they were moving forward with stay-at-home restrictions immediately, ahead of an order from the state government.

Orange County intensive care capacity edged up 20% on Friday from 17% on Thursday, indicating county hospitals are confusing staff and quickly reactivating pandemic battle plans, converting other sections of their facilities in intensive care areas.

As of Thursday, 195 COVID-19 patients occupied intensive care beds among 33 hospitals in Orange County, according to state health data. Just two months ago, there were around 50. The county peaked at 245 coronavirus patients in intensive care on July 15, during the summer flare-up.

The total number of coronavirus hospitalizations rose to 746 on Friday, breaking another record, and the County Health Care Agency reported 17 more deaths.