The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) announced on Friday that requests to stay at home in four regions, including the bay area, are likely to remain in effect after their original three-week duration – solidifying what many of us we think how Bay Area hospitals fill up with COVID-19 cases.
San Francisco and four other Bay Area counties were quick to prematurely enact a state stay order, claiming it was only a matter of time before they reached the 15% ICU capacity limit. That was over three weeks ago.
While “shutdown 2.0” was only expected to last until January 4, recent hospitalization and positivity rates prompted state public health officials to say on Friday that these orders would likely be extended to the Bay Area, Greater Sacramento, San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.
“The regional home order is likely to extend to many regions of California,” says a CDPH press release. “The regions must remain under the order of regional stay at home for at least three weeks and must continue until the ICU capacity projections for four weeks from the evaluated day are greater than or equal to 15%.”
As it stands now, the Bay Area’s ICU capacity stands at 9.8% – a number that could worsen in the coming weeks. The Greater Sacramento region has an ICU capacity projection rate of 16.7%, while Northern California appears to be the best at 36.3%; both the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California regions are at a worrying 0.0%.
The CDPH says that the bay area may leave the order on January 8, but based on current figures, it is unlikely to happen. of California become eligible to be removed from the order on December 28 – although this is incredibly unlikely, given the current dismal numbers for each of the last two regions.
Before Christmas Eve, California became the first state in the country to approve two million registered COVID-19 cases; Bay City News also shared that the CDPH is now reporting 2,042,290 confirmed cases – and those numbers may not represent the real change from day to day, as the test results report may be delayed.
Related: Breed announces new home stay requests for SF ahead of state mandate; Outdoor dining will cease until January
Image: Signs posted at Dolores Park in San Francisco warning people of best practices during the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic. Dolores Park is usually full of people, but it is currently empty. (Courtesy of Getty Images via DutcherAerials)