The Bay Area will introduce strict measures to ward off COVID-19 in a regional stay-at-home order to begin as soon as Sunday, ahead of when updated statewide rules will go into place.
The orders will close outdoor and indoor dining, limiting restaurants to offer only delivery and takeout options, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Personal care services such as hair and nail salons will be shut down, as well as playgrounds, bars, wineries, movie theaters, museums, and zoos. Grocery stores and other businesses can remain open but will need to limit their capacity to 20%.
“The dark COVID winter we feared would come has arrived in the Bay Area,” said Contra Costa County Health Officer Dr. Chris Farnitano. “I and other health officers don’t think we can wait for the state’s new restrictions to go into effect later this month. We must act swiftly to save as many lives as we can. This is an emergency.”
The orders will be the same as the statewide ones Gov. Gavin Newsom announced this week to try to quell the spread of the coronavirus that’s overwhelming hospitals.
Newsom said the restrictions will be put in place so hospitals will not be overrun as coronavirus cases remain on the rise. In regions where intensive care unit capacity falls below 15%, residents will be required to stay at home unless they’re engaged in essential activities.
Some hospitals might reach that capacity by next week, according to some health officials. A stay-at-home order for regional residents, in that case, would last for three weeks.
“If we don’t act now, our hospital system will be overwhelmed,” Newsom said.
The Bay Area region is above 15%, with 25% of intensive care unit beds available, but Santa Clara County within the region has only 14% of beds available.
San Francisco has 26% of intensive care unit beds available, but health officials warn if case increases continue in its trajectory, the city could run out of beds by Dec. 26. The number of COVID-19 patients in Bay Area intensive care units reached a record high of 263 on Thursday.
Overall, California has more than a million people infected by the virus and has had almost 20,000 deaths.
