California on Monday withdrew regional orders to stay home across the state in response to the improvement coronavirus conditions, returning the state to a system of county-by-county restrictions, state health officials announced. CBS San Francisco reports that the measure paves the way for a return to restaurants, religious services and other limited activities. Gov. Gavin Newsom responded to the order lifted Monday afternoon.
The order had been established in the San Francisco Bay Area, in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California, which covers most counties in the state. The change will allow companies such as restaurants to resume outdoor operations in many areas, although local officials may choose to continue with stricter rules. The state also raises a curfew from 10pm to 5am.
“Together we changed our activities knowing that our short-term sacrifices would lead to longer-term gains. COVID-19 is still here and still deadly, so our work is not over, but it is important to recognize our collective actions that have saved our lives and are turning a critical corner, ”Dr. Tomas Aragon, the state’s director of public health, said in a statement.
The decision comes with the improvement in trends in the rate of infections, hospitalizations and capacity of the intensive care unit, as well as in vaccinations.
Marcio José Sánchez / AP
Newsom imposed the stay-at-home order in December as coronavirus cases got worse. Under the system, a region in several counties had to close most businesses and order people to stay home if the ICU capacity fell below 15%. A region of Northern California, eleven counties, was never under the command. The Greater Sacramento region was out of order last week. The state makes decisions based on four-week projections that show an improvement in ICU capacity, but officials have not disclosed the data behind the forecasts.
Over the weekend, ICU capacity in the San Francisco Bay Area increased to 23%, while the San Joaquin Valley increased to 1.3%, the first time above from scratch. The huge, most populous region of Southern California remains at zero UCI capacity.
Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease expert at the UCSF, told CBS San Francisco that she was excited about the availability of the ICU in the region. He’s watching hospitalizations fall first hand at Zuckerberg San Francisco General, where he also works.
“We didn’t see the expected increase. We did it from Thanksgiving, and then it wasn’t so bad what was predicted at Christmas and New Year,” he said.
Earlier last year, the state developed a system of color-coded levels that dictated the level of restrictions on businesses and individuals based on virus conditions in each of California’s 58 counties. Most counties will now return to the more restrictive purple level, which allows for open-air dining rooms, hairdressing and nail salons, and outdoor church services. Bars that only serve drinks cannot be opened.
A Los Angeles County supervisor, where 10 million people live, expressed support for opening more businesses in the country. Republican supervisor Kathryn Barger said the state must balance public health with the “devastating social, emotional and economic impacts of this virus.”
“It supports following the guidelines recommended by the governor for Southern California and reopening outdoor dining, personal care services and other industries that were previously closed by these orders,” he said.
The county-by-county tier system uses several metrics to determine community transmission risk and apply a color code (purple, red, orange, or yellow) that corresponds to generalized, substantial, moderate, and minimal, respectively.
Over the weekend, California had more than 3.1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 36,790 deaths, according to the state’s public health website.