Tens of millions of Californians ordered to ‘stay-at-home’ to prevent hospitals being overrun

Tens of millions of Californians have been ordered to ‘stay-at-home’ to curb spread of Covid and prevent hospitals being overrun.

AROUND 27 million people in the Southern California and San Joaquin Valley regions are affected after both regions actioned a mandate issued by Governor Gavin Newsom last week requiring new restrictions if a region’s hospital ICU capacity drops below 15 per cent.

A further six million people are also under the new restrictions which came into place Sunday evening, December 6, after six Bay Area governments decided not to wait for ICU capacity to fall below 15 per cent.

According to Southern California’s state Covid-19 website, ICU capacity as of Sunday had dropped to 10.3 per cent, while it had fallen to 6.6 per cent in the San Joaquin Valley region.

And California recorded more than 30,000 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, a record high.

Under the new order, which will last at least three weeks, bars, hair salons, museums, movie theatres and indoor recreational facilities will be required to close.

Restaurants can only offer a delivery and take away service, retail businesses will be limited to 20 per cent capacity, and travel is only allowed for exceptional reasons.

The restrictions will only be lifted when a region’s ICU capacity meets 15 per cent.

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