California shelter order begins as COVID-19 cases explode

The California hit reached another complex COVID-19 milestone on Tuesday, with an average of 14,120 cases a day and more than 8,200 people hospitalized – two new records.

The continuous uprising is putting more pressure on state and local authorities Take more aggressive action To reduce the prevalence of flooding hospitals. Los Angeles County, particularly hard hit, has reported more than 7,500 new cases – more in a single day. LA County is projected to reach 9,000 cases by next week.

Officials said Note the restricted order at home If the cases continue to increase, it is now expected, because Thanksgiving weekend may spread the virus even more.

Government Gavin Newsom warned Monday that a new shelter order may come.

Such an order can only be imposed on districts that are in poor shape among those in the purple layer – even if most districts are in that layer. “We will bring some additional information, some additional recommendations very, very soon,” Newsom said.

Some details of such an order have been announced. California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr Mark Gale said Monday that authorities can learn from the spring lockout.

“One of the most important things we’ve learned is that we can’t do much surgery on what we do, but we can recommend it for a shorter or different time,” Gale said. “Initially, some of those orders were really open; We are not sure. Today, we know that some interventions can make a quick impact in a reliable way, and that is part of what we are considering. ”

But it may take some notes from LA County, which now has stricter regulations in the state.

LA County officials Spread “Targeted Safe Home Order” effective December 20. It covers public playgrounds; Puts new capacity limits on retail stores, outdoor museums, galleries, zoos and fisheries; And bans all gatherings from different houses, except for outdoor religious services and political demonstrations.

Those limitations are above other restrictions It came into effect last weekIncluding Updated ban In outdoor dining.

Saturday, LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer These restrictions cWill be sufficient to slow the spread. But he stressed that it would only work if people followed the rules.

“If it doesn’t work, if we’ve been in a worse place for two or three weeks now, we’ll have to go back and see what else we can do because it puts the health system at great risk,” Ferrer said. I do not think so – this is a disaster, we must avoid it at all costs. “

Other districts have their own various restrictions.

In Santa Clara County, hotel use is restricted to essential trips or persons in need of medical isolation or isolation. Capacity in retail companies also closed. Authorities also suspended contact games for professional teams, forcing the San Francisco 49ers Look nowhere else Play their home games scheduled for December.

As the corona virus continues to rise, city officials said Tuesday that San Francisco will announce additional changes this week, including an isolated order for travelers and a reduction in internal capacity in businesses.

San Francisco’s director of public health, Dr. Grant Kolbox, said: “Unfortunately we know it hasn’t come yet.”

If current trends continue, Southern California is forecast to exit the intensive care unit capacity by mid-late December, Newsom reported Monday. By Christmas Eve, ICU beds are projected to be 107% efficient across the region. Although intensive care therapies have improved since the early days of the epidemic, all challenges are muted once the ICUs are out of capacity.

The average net increase in hospital admissions with COVID-19 is now about 342 patients per day in the past week, according to a Times analysis. This acceleration was twice as bad as the summer upsurge, which saw an average net increase in hospital admissions to 173 patients a day over the course of a week at the end of June.

In LA County, hospital admissions tripled after Halloween, when about 800 people were admitted to the hospital, and 2,400 passed on Monday. For the second day in a row the high for hospitalization in LA County has been broken, and is 9% higher than the peak from the summer waves.

How about the vaccine?

Development of COVID vaccines Provides optimism for 2021. But that doesn’t help this winter’s rise.

California expects to receive approximately 327,000 levels Pfizer’s vaccine, Go to leading health workers.

The CDC’s advisory board on immunization practices met on Tuesday Discuss and vote on who should be the first to receive the initial dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. They suggested that the initial vaccination effort should focus on frontline health care workers and residents in long-term care facilities such as nursing homes and assisted-life facilities. The more vaccines available, the more groups will qualify.

As Pfizer and Moderna continue to increase production, most experts expect immunization efforts in the United States to be high in late spring and early summer as other vaccine candidates complete their clinical trials and apply for emergency use approval.

Times staff writers Tom Garven and Alex Wicklesworth contributed to the report.