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RIVERSIDE COUNTY, Calif .– Citing the increase in hospitalizations and deaths from coronaviruses over the past month, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday announced plans for a “regional stay-at-home ordinance” that will likely be implemented in the next few days in Southern California – including Riverside County – and other areas where intensive care unit beds are filling beyond capacity.
The order will be triggered when the availability of intensive care beds drops below 15% in the Southern California area, which is expected to occur over the next few days as the skyrocketing continues.
Riverside County intensive care beds have 17% uptime, or 83% capacity, county spokesman Brooke Federico said Thursday.
In July, most of Riverside County’s 17 acute care hospitals reached or exceeded their critical care bed capacity, but at the time, Federico said hospitals were converting traditional beds to intensive care beds.
The total licensed hospital bed capacity in Riverside County is 3,560 with 385 licensed intensive care beds, according to the county’s Readiness and Reopening Framework. According to the document, the county has the potential to add 2,464 additional beds and 716 additional beds to the ICUs.
Regardless of the intensive care capacity of Riverside County in the coming days, the planned stay-at-home order will apply to the entire Southern California region, which includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, Imperial, Inyo, Mono, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
Newsom said four other regions will likely fall below the threshold over the next few days – the Bay Area, the greater Sacramento area, northern California and the San Joaquin Valley.
“Ultimately, if we don’t act now our hospital system will be overwhelmed,” Newsom said. “If we don’t act now, we will continue to see the death rate rise, more lives lost.”
Once triggered, the stay-at-home order will be in place for three weeks and prevent gatherings of people from different households. It will also force the closure of all bars, wineries, personal service businesses, barber shops and hair salons, indoor recreation facilities, museums, zoos, aquariums, cinemas, family entertainment centers, card rooms, paris by satellite and amusement parks.
Schools with waivers will be allowed to remain open, along with “critical infrastructure”, and retail stores will be allowed to remain open, but with a capacity limited of up to 20 percent. Restaurants will be limited to take-out and delivery service only. Hotels will be allowed to open “for critical infrastructure support only,” while churches will be limited to outside services only. Entertainment production, including professional sports, can continue without a live audience. RELATED ARTICLE: Schools Reopen in 2020-2021 Year in Doubt: Riverside County
Newsom said the order was “fundamentally based on the need to stop congregating with people outside your home, to do what you can to keep most of your activities outside, and of course. , always … wear headwear, wear a mask. “
Counties can reappear individually under control if, after three weeks, the availability of intensive care beds exceeds 15 percent.
In response to a reporter’s question about local law enforcement enforcement of the order, Newsom said Thursday the state may be withholding aid, relief and economic security dollars. against the coronavirus to non-compliant counties and would redirect that money to other jurisdictions. In Riverside County, much of that money is being directed to local business owners and individuals who are economically affected by the pandemic.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco has repeatedly stated that his deputies will not answer calls about people / businesses / organizations that do not follow state orders.
To date, the state withholding of CARES funding from Riverside County has not taken place and there has been no correspondence from the state to the county regarding a possible future withholding, according to Riverside County spokesperson Brooke Federico.
Newsom pointed out that the order comes as ICU admissions due to COVID-19 have increased by 67% statewide in recent weeks, in conjunction with an increase in the number of cases across the country. State that has also seen a worrying increase in the number of deaths. He said the state only reported 14 deaths on November 2, but it now had consecutive days of 113 deaths, with nearly 1,000 deaths in the past four days.
Newsom also said on Thursday that the state has put in place a travel advisory recommending against non-essential travel and urging people to self-quarantine when they return to the state. When the Regional Stay-at-Home Order is triggered, it will strongly encourage residents to cancel any non-essential travel.
Dr Mark Ghaly, Secretary of State for Health and Human Services, acknowledged that there was no real mechanism to enforce such a travel restriction, but the state will rely on public cooperation
“We think that really focusing on this is what we hope our citizens will do because their communities are particularly at high risk, their hospitals are struggling to keep available intensive care beds open, that people will limit their movement statewide, ”Ghaly said.
Newsom again said the state has 11 “state of the art” medical facilities on standby to open and provide hospital beds. One, the ARCO / Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento, will open on December 9, and another is slated to open in Imperial County.
Among the other nine surge centers that could be opened include the Fairview Development Center in Orange County, the Riverside County Fairgrounds, the vacant Sears building in Riverside and the Palomar Medical Center in San Diego, Newsom said.
The governor stressed that the pandemic emergency will not last forever.
“There is light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “We are a few months away from real progress with the vaccine. (…) We don’t anticipate having to start over. But we all really need to step up. We need to face this moment head-on and we need to do whatever we can to stem the tide, bend the curve and give ourselves the time we need in bending this curve to get these vaccines in the hands of all Californians everywhere. ‘State. “
Newsom announced on Monday that California is expected to receive 327,000 COVID-19 vaccines by mid-December. On Thursday, he explained which Californians would be the first to receive a vaccine. Due to the small number of doses available for a state of nearly 40 million people, only people living in high-risk areas will have access to the first wave of immunizations, Newsom said. Learn more here.
Coronavirus cases in Riverside County increased by 900 on Thursday, with 13 more deaths, while hospitalizations continued to rise.
The total number of infections recorded across the county since the start of the public health documentation period in early March is 86,797, up from 85,896 on Wednesday, according to the Riverside University Health System.
Officials said the death toll from COVID-19 complications related to COVID-19 stood at 1,457.
The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations across the county is 649, up from 628 on Wednesday, including 124 ICU patients – a drop of two from a day ago, according to RUHS data.
The surpassing of the 550 suspected or confirmed coronavirus hospitalizations mark earlier this week surpassed the county’s previous “surge” recorded in the second half of July.
—City News Service, Patch Editor Toni McAllister
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