Name: Five Bay Area counties to enact strict stay-at-home order ahead of state edict, starting Sunday
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Five Bay Area counties to enact strict stay-at-home order ahead of state edict, starting Sunday

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateFive Bay Area counties on Friday ordered the most severe shelter-in-place directives since March, shutting down large swaths of the regional economy and requiring that people largely stay at home for the rest of the year in an urgent attempt to slow down the surge and prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed.The orders mimic a stay-at-home directive issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday that requires regions to shut down if their intensive care capacity falls below 15%. The Bay Area does not yet meet that threshold, but some health officers opted to move ahead of the state.The regional action will apply in San Francisco, Santa Clara, Marin, Contra Costa and Alameda counties, and the city of Berkeley, the local health officials announced Friday. The order will take effect in Santa Clara, Contra Costa and San Francisco counties Sunday at 10 p.m. It will take effect in Berkeley and Alameda County on Monday at 12:01 a.m. Marin County will put the restrictions into place on Tuesday at noon.This preemptive measure in parts of the Bay Area will close outdoor dining, personal care services such as hair and nail salons, playgrounds, bars and wineries, movie theaters, museums and zoos. It will allow retail, grocery stores and other businesses to remain open but limit capacity at 20%. Restaurants can do takeout and delivery only.The restrictions are the same as those spelled out in the state order, which takes effect when regions dip below 15% capacity in their hospital intensive care units. Only now, they will take effect in the participating Bay Area jurisdictions a couple of weeks earlier than they would have. The order will be in place until Jan. 4.“The dark COVID winter we feared would come has arrived in the Bay Area,” said Contra Costa County Health Officer Dr. Chris Farnitano. “I and other health officers don’t think we can wait for the state’s new restrictions to go into effect later this month. We must act swiftly to save as many lives as we can. This is an emergency.”The state order divides California into five regions to measure whether each region drops below 15% ICU capacity — Northern California, the Bay Area, Greater Sacramento, San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.The Bay Area region, which under the state mandate includes Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, is currently above the 15% intensive care unit hospital bed threshold that triggers the state-mandated stay-at-home order, with 25% of ICU beds available.But Santa Clara County is in particularly bad shape, with only 14% of ICU beds available, according to county data. The six Bay Area jurisdictions are voluntarily moving forward with the regional order to help stifle the recent, steep rise in new coronavirus cases.The six Bay Area jurisdictions decided the 15% state trigger was not fast enough and that the region needed to take action earlier, the health officers said Friday.More for you“We need urgent intervention now to dent the trajectory of this surge,” said Dr. Grant Colfax, director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health.The number of COVID-19 patients in Bay Area ICUs hit a record high 263 on Thursday, surpassing the previous record of 261 on July 29. That ICU number has increased 40% over just the past week, and tripled in one month.The region hit a record in hospitalizations last week. Currently, 933 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 in the Bay Area. Just over 90 people are hospitalized in San Francisco, and Colfax said that number is expected to double by Jan. 4. He said that by Feb. 4, 1,600 COVID-19 patients may need hospitalization if the current trends hold.“And across the region, some counties, including Santa Clara, will run out of ICU beds in the next week,” he said.San Francisco currently has 26% of ICU beds available. Health officials say if the current trajectory of case increases continues, the city would run out of ICU beds on Dec. 26. And they already are expecting a significant uptick in patients over the next few weeks due to Thanksgiving gatherings.“We hope these urgent interventions can stabilize our case counts,” Colfax said. “If we move today we can keep our health care system functional and save lives. We cannot let this virus get so far ahead of us that we cannot properly care for the ill and vulnerable in our community.”The Bay Area stay-at-home order will remain in place for nearly a month at least, which is longer than the three weeks mandated by the state order once regions fall under it. Colfax said the local order will be lifted if the counties see a “consistent decrease” in the rate of new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations for three weeks. The counties also need to have at least 25% of ICU beds available, he said.About 12% of cases end up in the hospital. Of those, about 25% to 40% end up in the ICU, estimated Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist at UCSF.Public health and political leaders said they recognized that the timing of this stay-at-home order is especially brutal, given the holiday season and people’s understandable desire to gather, plus their exhaustion with living under the threat of the virus.But this could be the final wave, they noted, with a vaccine on the horizon and an end to the pandemic in sight.“This should be the last major surge we face, and it will likely be the most challenging because we’re tired of this. I’m tired of this,” said San Francisco Mayor London Breed. “This is perhaps the final test we face as a city in this pandemic. We need to do what we can.“People will die otherwise who would have lived,” she said.Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Area’s largest water districts.As news of the impending closure of outdoor dining spread, some restaurant owners tried to take the development in stride. Dylan MacNiven, who owns Woodhouse Fish Co. in San Francisco, said he was glad to have at least a couple of days notice — unlike the last closure of outdoor dining at the beginning of the pandemic, which forced him to throw away a lot of food and produce.But he worries about whether restaurants can survive this next, prolonged closure without federal assistance.“Restaurant people are naturally scrappy, but unless there’s some sort of big federal package, I don’t see how a lot of people won’t default on their loans, their leases or their tax bills,” he said.Four Bay Area counties are not participating in the regional order: San Mateo, Napa, Sonoma and Solano.“To add orders on top of what the state has already issued restricts local businesses even further when they are not the cause of spread in Solano County,” said Jayleen Richards, public health administrator for Solano County, which has 35% ICU capacity remaining. “The primary contributor of spread in Solano County is personal behavior and people gathering with others outside of the household without following safety measures, like masking and physical distancing. We do not want to cause even more hardship to our local businesses.”Napa County is not implementing any earlier or more stringent stay-at-home orders than what the state has done, said public information officer Janet Upton. The county expects to fall under the state stay-at-home order in mid- to late December.“While the county understands and appreciates the measures taken by the other Bay Area counties, San Mateo will not at this time be issuing a new, local stay-at-home order and will continue to work with business and community leaders on adherence to existing guidelines,” San Mateo County said in a statement.In Santa Cruz County, county spokesman Jason Hoppin said in a statement, “We are aware of the decisions of the Bay Area counties to implement the Governor’s stay-at-home order immediately rather than wait for the state criteria to be met regarding ICU capacity. In collaboration with county leadership, Santa Cruz County Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel is considering what additional measures may be necessary to protect the health and safety of local residents. At this time, we have not reached any conclusions but are considering all options.”Dr. Nicholas Moss, the Alameda County health officer, said he understood that many people would be frustrated by the new mandate. “I think it’s going to be heartbreaking and angering for a lot of people. After asking for so much already, we’re asking for even more,” he said.“We think the state’s plan is great, but it means waiting too long,” Moss said. “I would love to be wrong. But I look at the numbers every day and we are just going up, up, up. Where does it stop? We need to take action now.”San Francisco Chronicle staff writers Dominic Fracassa, Erin Allday, Michael Williams and Nanette Asimov contributed to this report.Catherine Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: Twitter:Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Area’s largest water districts.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateFive Bay Area counties on Friday ordered the most severe shelter-in-place directives since March, shutting down large swaths of the regional economy and requiring that people largely stay at home for the rest of the year in an urgent attempt to slow down the surge and prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed.The orders mimic a stay-at-home directive issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday that requires regions to shut down if their intensive care capacity falls below 15%. The Bay Area does not yet meet that threshold, but some...

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Catherine Ho

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Five Bay Area counties to enact strict stay-at-home order ahead of state edict, starting Sunday

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