Bay Space ICU Capability At Underneath 13%; Keep-At-Residence Order To Go Into Impact For Whole Area – CBS San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – Napa, Solano and San Mateo counties should join the rest of the Bay Area starting Thursday at midnight.
According to California’s COVID-19 website, ICU capacity in the Bay Area fell below 13% on Wednesday, which triggered the order for a home across the region starting Thursday evening.
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Data on the state’s COVID-19 location showed the Bay Area hospital region had dropped to 12.9% ICU capacity late Wednesday morning when the latest COVID case and ICU capacity numbers were updated.
Bay Area drops below 15% ICU availability. The order for Stay At Home will start at the end of tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/ziMCvhphG8
– Wilson Walker (@WilsonKPIX) December 16, 2020
Much of the Bay Area – Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, and Santa Clara counties, and the city of Berkeley – passed the state residence ordinance on Dec. 7, well before the region fell below the 15% mark. ige intensive care unit fell capacity threshold set by Governor Gavin Newsom earlier this month.
However, Wednesday’s drop in capacity means that other areas that didn’t follow the stricter restrictions – counties Napa, San Mateo, Santa Cruz and Solano – would now be subject to stricter rules.
Health officials in Solano, San Mateo, and Napa counties made statements that they would implement the state-mandated regional stay-at-home order starting at 11:59 p.m. Thursday, December 17.
The stay at home order includes the following restrictions:
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- Closes private indoor and outdoor gatherings of any size
- Closes sector operations with the exception of the critical infrastructure and retail sectors
- Requires 100% masking and physical distancing
- Does not prohibit essential travel
- Closes all indoor and outdoor meals in restaurants (delivery and takeaway meals still available)
The order remains in effect for at least three weeks. The order can be canceled after three weeks if the planned intensive capacity of the region reaches or exceeds 15 percent.
“Solano County is experiencing alarming levels of COVID-19 transmission and our hospitalizations are increasing. Both are indicators that the ICU impact is not just local but regional,” said Dr. Bela T. Matyas in a press release.
“I’ve been calling for this action for two weeks, so I totally support the state’s decision to pull the trigger on the home order,” said David Canepa, chief of San Mateo County. “We are in the middle of the biggest health crisis in our history and it will take an incredible determination to recover. Our hospitals are now overwhelmed as COVID cases have risen dramatically in the past two weeks and more people have died. “
Currently, the Northern California Hospital Region is the only region that does not fall below this threshold. In this area, capacity in the intensive care unit is still just over 28%.
The state’s website reveals that there are currently a total of 47 California counties – roughly 98.3% of the state’s population – remaining under the Stay Home Mandate.
The California COVID-19 crisis reached a grim peak on Wednesday as the number of new cases and deaths continued to skyrocket.
Authorities reported 53,711 new coronavirus cases and 293 more deaths on Wednesday, setting new records. That brings the number of COVID-19 deaths in California to 21,481, according to the State Department of Public Health. The previous daily high for deaths was 225 on Saturday.
Marin County became the first county in the Bay Area to reach its maximum ICU capacity on Tuesday, according to health officials.
Officials reported that all fully occupied intensive care beds in Marin’s three hospitals were now in use. Of the beds treated, 12 of the district’s 29 beds are occupied by COVID patients.
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The decline in intensive care capacity just occurred when the state began distributing the Pfizer COVID vaccine to hospitals across California so that frontline health workers can get their first dose of vaccine earlier this week.
