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The Bay Area and Other Counties to Enforce Stay-at-Home Legislation

5 mins read

California Results in Implementing Stay-at-Home Order to Address Alarming Surge of COVID-19 Cases

On Friday, the Bay Area and other counties announced to the public that they would implement stay-at-home orders ahead of the state’s ruling. Due to the concerning increase of coronavirus cases across the region, California districts have decided to take the first step in encouraging people to stay indoors to help alleviate the area’s current epidemic situation.

The city of Berkeley, including counties San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, and Marin, have all agreed to establish the ruling beginning early on Sunday. The said ruling would affect and encompass nearly more than 30 million residents and stay in place until early January next year.

Due to the alarming spikes of COVID-19 cases around California, the state’s hospital capacity has also dropped to accommodate new patients impacted by the disease. Official news reports have recorded that the region’s southern half has two districts whose hospital patient vacancy proportions decreased to critically low levels. The said predicament has urged most California counties to establish the stay-at-home order without awaiting prolonged instructions from the state to address such a concern.

Despite national leaders’ attempts to prevent overcrowding events happening in hospitals for the nearing winter holiday season, California has experienced a skyrocket of coronavirus hospitalizations since last month. As of Saturday, the state revealed more than 25,000 new cases – the region’s highest day yet with the most reported number of COVID-19 infections.

Along with the stay-at-home legislation, the country would also re-enact strict public health guidelines to suppress and control the coronavirus’s spread. The said plan will serve as a method to decrease the number of confined coronavirus patients in hospitals statewide.

The Country’s ICU Capacity Updates and Gov. Newsom’s Revised Stay-at-Home Guidelines

On Saturday, state health administrators reported that the San Joaquin Valley’s intensive care unit (ICU) has fallen to only 8.6%. The percentage has indicated that the area’s health centers became overwhelmed as thousands of newly infected patients coming from its twelve counties get confined for treatment. Southern California, on the other hand, has its ICU capacity dropped to 12.5% – another alarming sign that shows its 11 districts’ struggles for COVID-19 patients’ hospitalizations.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced this week that he proposed a plan to aid in fighting against the coronavirus, detailing that stay-at-home orders are effective with the country regions whose hospital capacity is only 15 percent or below. Soon, the rest of California would have to adhere to the updated stay-at-home orders.

According to the plan suggested by Newsom, the stay-at-home legislation would mandate the shutdowns of businesses like bars, barbershops, hair salons, and more. Delivery and takeout are the only available options for restaurants and diners to offer to their customers. Furthermore, citizens get encouraged to stay indoors at all times and can only go out of their homes for necessary reasons, such as going to work or buying essential items like food. Despite the stricter regulations, schools around the country would remain open to accommodate both teachers and students to resume their classes.

Bay Area’s Public Health Restrictions and Experts’ Take on the Incoming Vaccines

Meanwhile, the Bay Area has yet to pass the threshold of immense hospital capacity. However, many of its districts on Friday encouraged that revised restrictions should take effect in advance to prevent hospitals and other medical settings from getting overwhelmed with the sudden increase of coronavirus cases lately. In Los Angeles County, officials have already established its “safer at home” restrictions, prohibiting its 10 million residents from conducting gatherings with individuals outside one’s household. The district’s worship and protester activities, on the other hand, only received limited exceptions.

California officials established newer restrictions and guidelines due to the country’s dwindling number of hospital beds and public health experts’ predictions of a possible spike in coronavirus infections. Professionals have repeatedly cautioned everyone to remain cautious of the coming days and months, despite the assurance of vaccines becoming available soon to safeguard millions of people from COVID-19.

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