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Bay Area County health officials will announce today that they are stepping up the timeline to impose the governor’s latest coronavirus restrictions to quell an outbreak of cases that threatens to overwhelm hospitals.
The announcement comes a day after state officials reported on Thursday that the Bay Area is expected to see intensive care hospital capacity over the next several weeks drop below a 15% threshold, this which would trigger regional lockdowns on businesses and activities under a new state order.
“The projections we have are that this number will be reached within the next two weeks, so there is no reason to wait,” said Jeff Smith, Santa Clara County Director. “It’s a bit like waiting to put the brakes on when you’re about to cross the cliff. If you want to benefit from public health, you have to do it now. “
Alameda County health officials said Thursday evening that “we may have to pass state stay-at-home restrictions before Bay Area hits the threshold to protect availability intensive care beds and save lives.
Health workers from Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco and the city of Berkeley plan to discuss the new restrictions at a press conference at 1 p.m.
Smith said county health officials are still working out the details of when it will go into effect, what will be limited and to what extent it will reflect state limits and where it could go further.
Since the start of the pandemic, the Bay Area has played a leading role in the response to the virus. In March, the region adopted an initial lockdown in the country which came days before Governor Gavin Newsom announced his statewide stay-at-home order, also a national first in the pandemic.
But with the state now experiencing a record spread of infections and hospitalizations, the region would not be the first to prevent the state from shutting down businesses and gatherings ahead of the state’s new term. Santa Clara County passed tougher rules last weekend, as did the city and county of Los Angeles, placing drastic restrictions on most activities.
The state restrictions, which Newsom said would likely be imposed on the Bay Area in just over a week, are forcing Californians in affected areas to stay home as much as possible to limit mixing with d other households, which can lead to the spread of COVID-19. It limits travel to essential services and restricts outdoor activities for exercise.
Outdoor playgrounds, hair salons, hair salons and personal care services, museums, campgrounds, zoos and aquariums, theaters, wineries, bars, breweries, distilleries, family entertainment centers, card rooms, live sports and amusement parks would close. Restaurants would be limited to take out and delivery.
But schools already open for in-person learning could continue to remain open under state restrictions, and retailers could operate at 20% of capacity. The churches could continue the outside services.
Last weekend’s Santa Clara County ordinance banned contact sports, imposed a mandatory quarantine on travelers and residents coming from more than 150 miles away, and tighter retail store occupancy limits.
The state’s Thursday order divided California into five regions, with the Bay Area comprising the nine counties surrounding San Francisco Bay as well as the counties of Santa Cruz and Monterey. Friday’s press conference did not include health workers from Santa Cruz and Monterey County, who often followed their Bay Area colleagues in their own guidelines. Smith said it was simply because Bay Area health workers had a long-standing communications group.
The state currently rates the critical care capacity in the Bay Area at 25.3%, the highest of the five regions. The others are Greater Sacramento at 22.2%, Southern California at 20.6%, the San Joaquin Valley at 19.7% and Northern California at 18.6%.
The availability of critical care in hospitals is somewhat fluid, said Jan Emerson-Shea, vice president of external affairs for the California Hospital Association.
“The numbers can change daily depending on the personnel and equipment available,” Emerson-Shea said. “Additionally, the data will not include ‘extra beds’ that are not specifically designated as intensive care or non-care beds until they are actually activated by the hospital.”
Even so, John Swartzberg, Emeritus Clinical Professor of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at UC Berkeley, said it wasn’t as if hospitals could just increase the number of intensive care beds to increase capacity.
“I don’t think it’s realistic to think that you could just add more beds willy-nilly,” Swartzberg said. “Staffing is the main limitation.”
The California Hospital Association said it supported Newsom’s order on Thursday for additional restrictions based on the availability of intensive care.
“The number of positive COVID-19 cases is increasing at an alarming rate, far greater than anything California has experienced in our previous summer surge,” said Carmela Coyle, president of the California Hospital Association. “The actions taken by the governor today are critical to ending unnecessary illness and death among Californians.”
And Swartzberg praised Bay Area public health officials on Friday for their work to stop the virus.
“The Bay Area has had the best leadership in the state and arguably the best leadership in the country in terms of its public health workers,” Swartzberg said. “We have seen this since the start of this pandemic. I think we have benefited from some very good health workers who work very collegially and a culture in the Bay Area that has worked hand in hand with public health.
Check back for more on this developing story.
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