LOS ANGELES (CNS)—Again citing rising COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths over the past month, Gov. Gavin Newsom Dec. 3 announced plans for a “regional stay-at-home order” that will be implemented in areas running low on intensive care unit (ICU) beds and force the closures of some businesses.
The order would be triggered when ICU bed availability in a select region falls below 15 percent. Although no region met that criteria as of Dec. 3, Newsom said the Southern California region could meet it in a matter of days.
Unlike the state’s four-tiered COVID-19 monitoring system, which grades every county individually, the new stay-at-home order will apply more broadly to five “regions” in the state: Southern California, the Bay Area, the greater Sacramento area, Northern California, and the San Joaquin Valley.
“The five regions that we have highlighted, most of these, four out of the five, we anticipate as early as the next day or two … that the greater Sacramento, Northern California regions, as well as San Joaquin Valley and Southern California region will have reached that 15 percent or less ICU capacity,” Newsom said. “The Bay Area may have a few extra days—our current projections suggest mid-, maybe late-December.”
The Southern California region includes Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Imperial, Inyo, Mono, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties.
Newsom stressed that ICU admissions due to COVID-19 have spiked by 67 percent statewide in recent weeks, in conjunction with a surge in cases that has also seen a disturbing rise in fatalities. He said the state reported just 14 deaths on Nov. 2, but now has had back-to-back days of 113 deaths, with nearly 1,000 fatalities in last four days.
“The bottom line is, if we don’t act now, our hospital system will be overwhelmed,” he said. “If we don’t act now, we’ll continue to see the death rate climb, more lives lost.”
When triggered, the stay-at-home order will be in place for three weeks and will bar gatherings of people from different households. Under the order, the following businesses/recreational facilities will be forced to close:
—indoor and outdoor playgrounds;
—indoor recreational facilities;
—hair salons and barbershops;
—personal care services;
—museums, zoos, and aquariums;
—movie theaters;
—wineries;
—bars, breweries, and distilleries;
—family entertainment centers;
—cardrooms and satellite wagering;
—limited services;
—live audience sports; and
—amusement parks.
Schools with waivers will be allowed to remain open, along with “critical infrastructure” and retail stores, which will be limited to 20 percent of capacity.
Restaurants will be restricted to takeout and delivery service only. Hotels would be allowed to open “for critical infrastructure support only,” while churches would be restricted to outdoor only services. Entertainment production —including professional sports—would be allowed to continue without live audiences.
Some of those restrictions are already in effect in select counties.
Newsom said the order is “fundamentally predicated on the need to stop gathering with people outside of your household, to do what you can to keep most of your activities outside and, of course, always … wear face coverings, wear a mask.”
Newsom also noted that the state still has a travel advisory in place recommending against nonessential travel and urging people to quarantine when they return to the state. When the regional stay-at-home order is triggered, it will strongly urge residents to cancel any nonessential travel.
Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s Health and Human Services secretary, acknowledged there is no real mechanism for enforcing such a travel restriction, but the state will rely on public cooperation.
“We believe that really emphasizing this is what we hope our citizens will do because their communities are at particularly high risk, their hospitals are having difficulty keeping available ICU beds open, that people will restrict their travel statewide,” he said.
Newsom again said the state has 11 medical “surge” facilities on standby to open and provide hospital bed space. One of them, the ARCO/Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento, will open Dec. 9, and another is set to open in Imperial County.
Included among the other nine surge centers that could be opened are the Fairview Development Center in Orange County, the Riverside County Fairgrounds, the vacant Sears building in Riverside, and Palomar Medical Center in San Diego, Newsom said.
The governor stressed that the pandemic emergency won’t last forever.
“There is light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
“We are a few months away from truly seeing real progress with the vaccine. … We do not anticipate having to do this once again. But we all really need to step up. We need to meet this moment head on and we need to do everything we can to stem the tide, bend the curve, and give us the time necessary by bending that curve to get those vaccines in the hands of all Californians all across the state.”
The governor’s announcement was met with derision from some Republican lawmakers.
“Governor Newsom clearly doesn’t understand that Californians are tired of being locked in their homes,” Sen. Melissa Melendez (R-Lake Elsinore) said.
“He has ignored the calls from parents with children falling behind socially and academically while his own children attend in-person private school. He is ignoring the cries from small business owners struggling to keep their dreams alive, desperately trying to avoid the over 19,000 businesses that have permanently closed.”
Senate Republican Leader Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) demanded that the governor provide scientific evidence supporting the stay-at-home order.
“Governor Newsom continues to disrupt life as we know it without releasing the full data behind his decisions or showing the impact his actions are having on our lives,” Grove said.
“With all the changing guidelines over the last nine months, evidence-based decision-making has to become the standard and not this hodgepodge approach advanced by the governor.”
But Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) threw her support behind Newsom, saying skyrocketing case numbers make the action necessary.
“The last eight months have been difficult for everyone,” she said.
“The toll of this pandemic on families across the country has been devastating, and the mental, economic, and social well-being of many Americans is suffering. But we must stay strong and do all we can to save lives. Together we will see it through.”
