Health officials in Bay Area County will announce today that they are accelerating the governor’s recent timeline for imposing coronavirus sanctions in cases that threaten to sink hospitals.
The announcement comes a day after state officials indicated Thursday that the hospital’s intensive care capacity in the Bay Area is expected to fall below the 15% threshold in the next two weeks, leading to a regional lockdown on businesses and activities under the new state order.
“We anticipate that number will be received in the next two weeks, so there’s no reason to wait,” said Jeff Smith, Santa Clara County executive. “It’s kind of like waiting for the brakes to be applied when you’re going up the cliff. If you are going to get public health benefits, you have to do it now. “
“We may need to enact state stay-at-home restrictions before the Bay Area area is demarcated, in order to save the availability and life of ICU beds,” Almeida County health officials said late Thursday.
Health officials from Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marine, San Francisco and Berkeley City plan to discuss the new sanctions at a news conference at 1 p.m.
Smith said county health officials are still working on when it will be implemented, what will be banned and to what extent it will reflect state limits and where it will go next.
Since the epidemic began, Bay Area has played a leading role in responding to the virus. In March, the sector adopted the first lock-down in the country, just days before government Gavin News announced its statewide stay-home order, the national first in epidemics.
But now that infections and hospital admissions are spreading across the state, the state will not be the first to shut down businesses and gatherings before the new state order. Santa Clara County adopted strict rules last week, such as the city of Los Angeles and the county, imposing heavy restrictions on most activities.
State sanctions, which Newsome said would be imposed on the bay area for a short period of a week, should limit Californians in the affected regions to mix with other households as much as possible, causing COVID-19 to spread. . It limits travel to critical services and prohibits outdoor activities for exercise.
There will be outdoor playgrounds, necklaces, hair salons and personal care services, museums, campgrounds, zoos and aquariums, theaters, wineries, bars, breweries, distilleries, family recreation centers, card rooms and entertainment parks. Rest Restaurants will be limited to rents, withdrawals and deliveries.
But schools already open for individual education can remain open under state restrictions, and retailers can operate at 20% capacity. Churches can continue external services.
Contact sports were banned last week in Santa Clara County, with mandatory quarantine imposed on travelers and residents more than 150 miles away and the retail store business.
The state’s order Thursday divided California into five territories, including nine counties around San Francisco Bay, as well as Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. Friday’s news conference did not include health officials from Santa Cruz and Monterey County, who often follow two area colleagues in their own direction. Smith said it was only because there was a long-running communications group among health officials in the Bay Area.
The state currently gives a list of 25.3% intensive care capacity of the bay area, which is the highest among the five areas. Others include Greater Sacramento 22.2%, Southern California 20.6%, San Joaquin Valley 19.7% and Northern California 18.6%.
The availability of intensive care in hospitals is somewhat fluid, said Jan Emerson-Shea, vice president of external affairs at the California Hospitals Association.
Emerson-Shia said numbers may change daily depending on available staffing and equipment. “Also, the data will not include” server beds “unless they are specifically designated as ICU or non-ICU beds unless they are specifically activated by Spital.”
However, John Swartzberg, a clinical professor of infectious diseases and vaccine science at UC Berkeley, said it was not the case that hospitals could crank up the number of intensive care beds to increase their capacity.
“I don’t think it feels real that you can just add bed willy-nilly,” Schwartzberg said. “Staffing is the main limitation.”
The California Hospitals Association said it supported the order of additional restrictions based on Newsum’s Thursday intensive care availability.
“The number of COVID-19 positive cases is growing at an alarming rate, more than California has experienced in our previous summer surplus,” said Carmella Coyle, president of the California Hospitals Association. “The steps taken by the governor today are necessary to prevent unnecessary illness and death among the people of California.”
And Schwartzberg praised the public health officials of the two areas on Friday for their work to prevent the virus.
“Bay Area has had the best leadership in the state and has been the best leadership in the country in terms of its public health officials,” Schwartzberg said. “We have seen this epidemic from the beginning. I think we’ve benefited from some very good health executives who work in a very collective fashion and a culture in the Bay Area that has to do with public health. “
Check back for more on this evolving story.
