California suspended regional home stay requests across the state on Monday in response to the improvement coronavirus conditions, returning the state to a county-by-county restraint system, state health officials announced. CBS San Francisco reports that the move paves the way for a return to limited restaurants, religious services and other activities.
Governor Gavin Newsom said on Monday that the state’s hospitalization rate has dropped nearly 20% across the state in the past two weeks.
“We are in a position, projecting four weeks ahead, with a significant drop in case rates, positivity rates, we predict a further drop in hospitalizations and more drops in ICUs, which is why we are suspending this stay at home, effective immediately immediately. “, he said.
The request was in effect in the San Francisco Bay area, in the San Joaquin valley and Southern California, covering most state counties. The move will allow companies like restaurants to resume outdoor operations in many areas, although local authorities may choose to maintain stricter rules. The state is also suspending the curfew from 10 pm to 5 am.
“Together, we changed our activities knowing that our short-term sacrifices would lead to long-term gains. COVID-19 is still here and still deadly, so our work is not over, but it is important to recognize that our collective actions saved lives and we are turning a critical corner, “said Dr. Tomas Aragon, the state’s director of public health, in a statement.
The decision comes with improving trends in the rate of infections, hospitalizations and capacity of the intensive care unit, as well as vaccinations.
Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP
Newsom imposed the order to stay at home in December, as coronavirus cases worsened. According to the system, a region with multiple counties had to close most businesses and order people to stay at home if the ICU’s capacity dropped to less than 15%. A region of 11 counties in Northern California has never been under order. The Greater Sacramento region came out of the order last week. The state makes decisions based on four-week projections that show the improvement of the ICU’s capacity, but officials have not released the data behind the forecasts.
Over the weekend, the ICU capacity in the San Francisco Bay area increased to 23%, while the San Joaquin Valley increased to 1.3%, its first time above zero. The huge southern California region, the most populous, remains at zero ICU capacity.
Dr Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at UCSF, told CBS San Francisco that she was encouraged by the availability of ICUs in the region. She is seeing hospitalizations fall firsthand at Zuckerberg San Francisco General, where she also works.
“We haven’t seen the expected increase. We’ve seen it since Thanksgiving, and then it wasn’t so bad at Christmas and New Year in all that was predicted,” she said.
Early last year, the state developed a system of color-coded levels that dictated the level of restrictions for businesses and individuals based on virus conditions in each of California’s 58 counties. Most counties will now return to the more restrictive purple layer, which allows for open-air dinners, hairdressers and open manicures and outdoor religious services. Bars that serve only drinks cannot be opened.
A county supervisor in Los Angeles, where 10 million people live, expressed support for opening more companies in the country. Republican supervisor Kathryn Barger said the state must balance public health with “the devastating social, emotional and economic impacts of this virus”.
“I support following the guidelines recommended by the governor for southern California and reopening open-air restaurants, personal care services and other industries that were previously closed under these orders,” she said.
The county-by-county level system uses various metrics to determine the risk of transmission from the community and apply a color code – purple, red, orange or yellow – that corresponds to diffused, substantial, moderate and minimal, respectively.
Over the weekend, California had more than 3.1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 36,790 deaths, according to the state’s public health website.
