California extends stay-at-home order for portions of state

California has extended coronavirus-related restrictions for at least another three weeks in the state’s southern region as COVID-19 cases in the area surge, according to the Los Angeles Times.

A stay-at-home order for the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California took effect Dec. 6. Together, the two regions comprise 23 counties and the majority of the state’s population.

“If we are to get through this, the gatherings must stop and strict precautions must be followed by businesses that have been allowed to remain open,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis said Tuesday in a statement. “This is a dire situation — one that we avoided up until now and, frankly, one that we know was preventable because we’ve prevented it before.”

The three-week order takes effect on a regional basis when a region has less than 15 percent intensive care bed availability, which is currently the case for both regions as well as the Bay Area and Greater Sacramento. The state can extend orders for regions that have not reached the ICU bed minimum. As of Monday, Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley both had availability of around 0 percent.

“Whether or not we can eventually increase our ICU capacity to an adequate level is up to the behaviors of Los Angeles County residents — and the residents of all Southern California,” Solis said Tuesday, according to the newspaper.

L.A. County’s health care system has been hit particularly hard by the virus, with some hospitals saying they have been reduced to treating patients in gift shops and conference rooms and many forced to divert ambulances. The average number of daily new cases appears to have leveled off, but public health officials warned a surge related to holiday gatherings is likely in the weeks ahead.

California Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly urged residents to forgo New Year’s gatherings to avoid exacerbating the numbers.

“Those are going to be the things that help us keep this slight decrease downward or … just a flattening of the upward trends that help us anticipate a slightly reduced impact on our hospitals,” he said, according to the Times.