Home stay orders currently in effect in the Bay Area and three other regions of California are likely to remain in effect after a minimum of three weeks, state officials said Friday.
The order to stay at home in the state is activated when the average capacity of the intensive care unit in a region falls below 15 percent. Currently, the Bay Area, Sacramento, the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California are under order, the California Department of Public Health said.
The first date the bay area may become eligible to leave the order is Jan. 8, the state department said. The Great Sacramento could be eligible to leave the order as early as January 1, while San Joaquin and Southern California could be eligible this coming Monday, December 28th.
According to the department, the available capacity of the ICU in the last two regions has dropped to 0%. In the bay area, ICU capacity is 9.8 percent and in Sacramento, ICU capacity is 16.7 percent, according to the department.
The state department’s forecast coincided with Monday’s announcement by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The governor said at the time that COVID-19 cases and fired hospitalizations would likely keep home stay orders for several regions of the state.
The health department said Friday that California has 2,042,290 confirmed cases to date, though the numbers may not represent a real day-to-day change, as notification of test results may be delayed. There were 39,144 recently confirmed cases on Thursday and the 7-day positivity rate is 11.9%, while the 14-day positivity rate is 12.4%, the department said.