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From Vivian Ho in San Francisco, Martin Pengelly in New York and agencies:
More than three-quarters of California’s population now live under the most severe closures in the United States, as Covid-19 cases hit record levels in the country’s most populous state.
Regional home stay restrictions went into effect for nearly 23 million Southern California residents and 4.4 million residents across a large swath of the Central Valley Sunday night, as ordered by state Governor Gavin Newsom. . The orders go into effect region by region when the beds in the region’s hospital intensive care units drop below 15%.
The Southern California region and the San Joaquin Valley region joined five counties in the Bay Area region whose local leaders preemptively ordered their 6 million residents to enter the lockdown beginning at 10 p.m. Sunday. . “We can’t wait until we’ve driven over the cliff to pull the emergency brake,” said Santa Clara County Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody.
The restrictions, which require people to stay home and minimize contact with other households, will remain in effect for at least three weeks, covering the Christmas holidays.
All retail stores can remain open, albeit at 20% capacity, along with outdoor spaces such as parks and beaches, but restaurants, bars, hair and nail salons and tattoo shops must close.
California reported 24,735 positive cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the average to 21,924 cases per day. The state had a positivity rate of 10.5% in seven days, meaning that last week, one in 10 Californians tested for coronavirus came back positive. Newsom noted that the growth rate of the state’s positivity rate was “very, very sharp”; Just 30 days ago, the state’s positivity rate was 3.4%. Health officials believe the numbers will only get worse before they get better.
“We know that those cases that potentially happened around dinners, activities, plans, people’s trips during Thanksgiving are going to show up right now. We will see that for many days, ”said Dr. Mark Ghaly, California’s secretary of health and human services. “We believe that the transmission levels that we have been reporting so far will likely continue to increase due to those activities.”
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