[ad_1]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – California on Tuesday lifted a stay-at-home order in the Sacramento 13-county area as hospital conditions get the most intense “surge of the coronavirus.”
The ordinance imposed a December 10 ban on gatherings outside a home and closed or restricted many businesses. With virus cases and hospitalizations now more stable, the region can resume outdoor dining and worship services, reopen hair and nail salons and other businesses, and expand capacity at retailers. Gatherings of up to three households are permitted.
Newsom made the announcement in a social media message that reminded people to wear masks, to stay home as much as possible, and offered the hopeful promise: “There is a light at the end of this tunnel.”
Three of the state’s five regions – the San Francisco Bay Area, Central Valley, and Southern California – remain under stay-at-home orders because their capacity for intensive care in hospitals is severely limited .
California has seen a huge increase in cases, hospitalizations and deaths since Thanksgiving. The state averages 42,000 new cases of the virus per day and recorded 3,500 virus deaths last week. As of Monday, the death toll has exceeded 30,000 since the start of the pandemic.
Health officials warn that hospitalizations and deaths are likely to continue to rise as people who contract the virus during the holidays become sicker and sicker.
In an attempt to control the virus, California is moving faster to distribute vaccines. Newsom set a target last week to deliver 1 million doses by Friday. A state advisory board met on Tuesday to discuss new federal guidelines that urge states to immediately begin vaccinating a larger group of people.
Newsom imposed the first statewide stay-at-home order in March. It was lifted in the spring when cases fell, but more restrictions were imposed during a summer peak.
A huge push in late fall prompted the Newsom administration to divide the state into five regions in December and impose a new stay-at-home order on four of them when their intensive care capacity fell. below 15%. Only rural Northern California has remained unserviceable.
Sacramento area ICU capacity is now at 9.4%, but is expected to exceed 15% over the next four weeks, prompting the state to lift the order. The region includes El Dorado County, home to Lake Tahoe, a tourism hotspot that, even with the restrictions, has seen large crowds while on vacation.
Newsom and California Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr Mark Ghaly have credited the state home order with limiting the severity of the outbreak, but some experts wonder what the benefit has been.
“What the stay-at-home orders were supposed to do is keep families who don’t live together separate. Instead, over the past few months, people have come together. You’ve had little social gatherings indoors, ”said Dr. Brad Pollock, associate dean for public health sciences at UC Davis School of Medicine. “I wouldn’t say home orders were wasted, but they probably didn’t have a huge impact on what really happened with the drivetrain models.
Supervisor Mike Ziegenmeyer of Sutter County in the Sacramento area recognized him when he reacted to the lifting of the order.
“It’s exciting, but at the same time, who’s on board?” he said.
Shon Harris, a Yuba city councilor, said he was surprised Newsom had lifted the order, calling him “baby is coming back to old normal.” But he urged people to “take COVID seriously, take the precautions seriously (and) stick to them.”
“They gave us a thumbs up. We don’t want to take a mile and get greedy, ”he said.
Meanwhile, the state continued efforts to administer nearly 1.5 million doses of the vaccine by Friday, which is still a small portion of what is needed to achieve collective immunity in the state. nearly 40 million people. Several counties have announced that they will open mass vaccination sites, including Dodger Stadium, Disneyland and Cal Expo, an outdoor venue in Sacramento.
But the effort to speed up vaccinations quickly, including through new federal government rules, has further led to confusion and different approaches across counties. California has focused on vaccinating healthcare workers and nursing home residents first, with people over 75 and those at risk of contracting the virus on the job, such as teachers or workers. agriculture, to the next level. UC Davis Medical Center began administering the vaccine to people over the age of 75 on Tuesday.
The federal government, meanwhile, said vaccines should be available to anyone over the age of 65 and younger people with certain health conditions. Orange County has said it will move quickly to vaccinate people 65 and older.
But a meeting of the state’s Community Vaccine Advisory Committee became tense as representatives from different groups debated the merits of expanding the vaccine pool beyond state guidelines.
“Moving millions further in the queue, by definition, means millions more are further in the queue,” said Mitch Steiger, legislative advocate for the California Federation of Labor.
Although he said the arguments made sense, he couldn’t support a change that would push back essential workers, acknowledging that for many of his members that means “the more of you are going to get sick, the more of you. you will die ”.
Dr. Michael Wasserman, president of the California Association for Long-Term Care Medicine, fears the state will move to the next level without first ensuring that workers and residents of nursing homes, residences -services and group homes are protected first, while others have expressed similar fears that the rush to vaccinate older people could leave behind other workers who were following or those from disadvantaged communities who are more difficult to reach.
“Sure, you hit the accelerator, but don’t leave us behind,” summed up Charles Bacchi of the California Association of Health Plans, even as he supported the focus on immunizing the elderly. “We just can’t lose sight of this.”
___
Associated Press writers Janie Har in San Francisco, Amy Taxin in Orange County, and Don Thompson and Adam Beam in Sacramento contributed.
[ad_2]
Source link