Orange County, like most of California, held its breath Friday, Nov. 4, as Southern California awaited word on its diminishing intensive care capacity as the coronavirus threatens to roil hospitals once again.
If there aren’t enough open beds as the pandemic enters its darkest days, the latest and strictest stay-at-home order since March will kick in, prohibiting private gatherings of any size, requiring masks in public and shutting down more non-essential businesses.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday said the state was on the brink of a serious shortage of intensive care beds and that any of five California regions that dropped below 15% ICU bed availability would trigger for themselves a new lockdown for at least three weeks.
The order would go into effect 24 hours after a region falls below that threshold and add new restrictions to the kaleidoscope of business and public sector guidelines, again closing hair salons, playgrounds and museums and forcing restaurants to rely on takeaway and delivery orders.
Retailers would have to cut admittance indoors to 20%, though many already were running at a quarter or half capacity inside, per purple tier rules. Schools that already are teaching in-person can keep doing so.
During a news conference Thursday, Newsom said that hammer could fall for the most dire regions within a couple of days.
State health officials said Friday that regional ICU capacity figures would be posted daily, but no update was published as of 6 p.m. to the state’s COVID-19 website.
The stay-at-home order says it will take effect just before 1 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 5.
California Department of Public Health staff did not respond Friday to questions asking when the next update would come, but a spokesperson said state officials would notify local health officers directly when their region falls below the 15% ICU threshold.
Dr. Clayton Chau, Orange County Health Care Agency director and county health officer, made no public announcement Friday.
As of Thursday, the 11-county Southern California group, including coastal and inland areas as far north as Mono and as far south as San Diego, collectively had 20.6% of ICU beds available.
The Northern California region, including Humboldt and Shasta counties, was closest to the red line Thursday at 18.6% ICU capacity.
Taking no chances, a group of Bay Area counties announced Friday that they would go ahead with stay-at-home restrictions immediately, ahead of an order from the state government.
Orange County’s ICU capacity inched up to 20% Friday, from 17% Thursday, an indication that the county’s hospitals are scrambling staff and swiftly reactivating pandemic battle plans and converting other sections of their facilities into critical care areas.
By Thursday, 195 COVID-19 patients occupied intensive care beds among the Orange County’s 33 hospitals, according to state health data. Just two months ago, there were around 50. The county peaked at 245 intensive care coronavirus patients on July 15, during the summer surge.
Overall coronavirus hospitalizations climbed to 746 by Friday, breaking another record, and the county’s Health Care Agency reported 17 more deaths.
The latest shutdown plans temporarily supersede the state’s four-tier tracking system, which has been used since August to track important coronavirus metrics, such as case rates, and determine what should and shouldn’t open.
Orange County’s case rate appears to be worse than ever.
By Tuesday, the county had 22.2 new coronavirus cases per day per 100,000 residents, more than triple the rate just one month ago. Testing positivity – the share of swab tests returning positive – reached 8.8%, though it hasn’t yet matched rates seen in mid-July.
Posted by: https://anaheimsigns.com
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