Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday said it was likely the state’s regional stay-at-home orders would get extended beyond their initial three week duration
Currently four of the five regions in California are under the orders, which are imposed when hospitals intensive care unit capacity drops below 15 percent. Only Northern California remains not under the order.
The San Joaquin Valley’s stay-at-home order would expire on Dec. 28 and Southern California’s on Dec. 30, but pointing to COVID-19 data around new cases and hospitalizations Newsom said, “It’s very likely based on those current trends that we’ll need to extend that stay-at-home order.”
Newsom didn’t specify how long he planned to extend the orders, nor did he indicate where the Bay Area stood.
“Just previewing the likelihood of those stay-at-homes being extended, certainly in those two regions,” Newsom said, referring to Southern California and San Joaquin.
The Bay Area officially came under the regional stay-at-home order on Dec. 17, which means it would expire in the first week of January. San Francisco joined four other Bay Area counties and voluntarily imposed the order early on Dec. 6.
Statewide, the ICU bed capacity is at 2.5% while the Bay Area’s is at 13.7%. Both San Joaquin Valley and Southern California regions have 0% ICU capacity. The Greater Sacramento region has 16.2% capacity and Northern California 28.7%.
There were 37,892 new cases and a seven-day average of 43,901, the California Department of Public Health reported Monday. There were 83 deaths.
New cases had exceeded more than 50,000 and deaths more than 370 just days ago.
Newsom said some have suggested the data is showing a decline in the growth rate of the virus, but he cautioned against drawing any conclusions at this point especially with weekend numbers.
“It is still too early to tell,” Newsom said.
The state’s positive test rate is 12%, when just 14 days ago it was 8.7%. There were 17,190 people hospitalized for COVID-19 and 3,644 patients in intensive care.
Newsom also gave an update on the vaccine front.
He said that California administered 70,258 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine last week.
The state has already received 327,600 doses from Pfizer and expected to receive 233,025 this week for a total of 560,625, he said.
California is already receiving doses of the Moderna vaccine, which was approved for emergency use last Friday by the Food and Drug Administration.
Newsom said the state expects to receive a total of 672,600 Moderna vaccine doses this week, of which they have already received 110,000 doses.
jsabatini@sfexaminer.com
