SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – California on Monday lifted statewide home-based regional orders in response to improving coronavirus conditions, and returned the state to a county-by-county system of restrictions. announced state health officials.
The order had been established in the San Francisco Bay Area, the San Joaquin Valley, and Southern California, which covered most of the state’s counties.
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 saved lives and we are turning a critical corner, ”said Dr. Tomas Aragon , director of state public health statement.
Governor Gavin Newsom was expected to address the public Monday later. Public officials in major California cities indicated they could soon lift local restrictions.
“We will continue to move forward with some limited reopening, including outdoor dining and personal services,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed said in a tweet.
In Los Angeles County, where 10 million people live, Republican supervisor Kathryn Barger expressed support for opening more businesses and said the state must balance public health with “social impacts. , emotional and economic devastation 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 decision came amid improving trends in the rate of infections, hospitalizations and capacity of the state’s intensive care units. as well as vaccinations.
Newsom, a Democrat, 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 order and the Greater Sacramento region was out of order last week. The state makes its decisions on the basis of four-week projections showing an improvement in the capacity of the ICU, 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 agricultural region increased to 1.3%, the first time above zero. The huge, most populous region of Southern California remains at zero UCI capacity.
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.
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.
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Antczak reported from Los Angeles.