Tennessee alone has more cases per 100,000 people. As of Sunday afternoon, California had 95.7 people infected per 100,000 and Tennessee had 119.7, the data show. Bay Area medical experts are begging people to be cautious.
Doctors say there are two likely reasons for the high numbers: coronavirus fatigue and private meetings.
Governor Gavin Newsom’s request for a regional California home stay is set to expire on Monday, but with the capacity of the regional intensive care unit officially considered zero, he said the request will almost certainly be extended.
“We basically have a pandemic fatigue that has caused people not to wear masks when they should be. They are starting to try to go out and see friends or receive friends. And I think we really amplified events that happened with consecutive holiday seasons,” said the Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, professor at the Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA.
To get out of the order to stay at home, a region needs to have at least 15% of the ICU capacity back. After reaching that mark, projections must predict that the region will remain at that level for at least another four weeks before the order can be suspended.
“We are very aware that there is pandemic fatigue, that people are tired and I think people’s ability to take shelter and their disposition is definitely not the same as it was in the spring,” said Dr. Ahmad Kamal of Santa Clara. County in Northern California. Dr. Kamal is the county’s health preparedness director. He says we need to be strong, not traveling and not meeting.
Those who are meeting, however, say they are safe.
“While I am wearing a mask, I feel very comfortable,” said Giancarlo Pacheco to our sister station KGO.
“It’s just the five of us, we are not going to meet with any other family member,” said Adrianne Mendoza, who was with her family.
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Most also admitted that they were traveling.
“I’m actually from Los Angeles,” says Pacheco.
“Sacramento,” says Val Koshman.
And many admitted that they had meetings, but kept them small.
“We only meet with a group of a maximum of 10 people. It was our whole family that was around, ”said Karla Rivas.
“If you can’t leave, you have to visit some people and do something,” says Koshman.
Dr. Kamal says that on any given day there are less than 30 ICU beds available throughout Santa Clara County. He says that even family reunions are dangerous, but he believes that by staying at home we can reverse the high number of cases that would improve the number of ICUs, relieve pressure from hospitals and lead to reopening.
“We have seen so many times when people come together in small groups, even with their cousins, uncles, aunts or grandparents, that this happens and often happens to people who do not know that they are sick and do not know that they have symptoms, so everyone we really need to crouch and shelter, “says Dr. Kamal.
Although California’s COVID-19 rates are the second highest in the country, it is important to note that coronavirus death rates here in California are 30. Doctors have previously said that death rates are often behind case increases in a few weeks.
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