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With the Bay Area’s ICU capacity now above 23% – a massive improvement from the last reported ICU availability rate of just 6.5% – the region now falls under state criteria for leave his current stay-at-home order.
On the pandemic front, things are improving in our slice of California. The past seven days have seen the opening of mass vaccination sites, more doses of COVID-19 vaccine in the Bay Area and, mainly among these positive updates, the capacity of the intensive care unit to the region grew significantly to 23.6% – prompting some health experts to consider this. past push (and the series of restrictions it caused) something we can leave in the past.
“I really want to stress this, that I firmly believe this is our last push and that this is the last time these restrictive lockdowns will occur, due to vaccine availability,” says Dr. Monica Gandhi, expert in Infectious Diseases from UCSF, to KPIX. “Because of the new administration and the federal government that kicked her out, signing the National Defense Act.”
Gandhi also told local media that she was encouraged by the availability of the ICU in the area and had seen COVID-19-related hospitalizations plummet at Zuckerberg San Francisco General, where she works.
However, the elephant in the room remains: will the current order to stay at the state house be lifted? The Bay Area does, in fact, meet the criteria for it to be removed – but it’s not entirely clear when that could happen. (Most of the eleven Bay Area counties, including the city and county of San Francisco, also have specific COVID-19 restrictions that differ from those imposed by the state, so it’s a bit of a blur to know which ones can and cannot stay.)
As the Chronicle describes, lifting the current lockdown order would allow the Bay Area to resume activities licensed under the state’s purple level restrictions; these include things like alfresco dining, mingling safely with more people outside your immediate household, and allowing hair salons and other personal care services to resume indoor services.
The state uses a complex formula (which is still ambiguous at best) to predict the four-week intensive care unit availability rates of a single region. The Sacramento area order was lifted when its critical care availability was around 9% – so this is promising news for residents of the Bay Area.
This update also comes after Mayor Breed hinted on Friday that some of San Francisco’s COVID-19 restrictions may soon loosen as the city’s “COVID-19 reproduction rate” continues to decline.
Nonetheless: don a mask, take social distancing seriously, and for all that is sacred in the world … don’t travel to Puerto Vallarta in the spring.
Related: Opening of three mass vaccination sites in San Francisco; Oakland’s RingCentral Coliseum will also become a vaccination site
Bay area sees another spike in COVID deaths, with 250 more dead in 3 days
Smooth opening of the mass vaccination site at City College – No visits allowed
Image: Getty Images / beerkoff
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