Over the weekend, the State of California’s ICU bed capacity dropped below 15 percent down to 14.2 percent, prompting the new Stay-At-Home order to go into effect.
As of Sunday, Dec. 6, the Regional Stay-At-Home order was issued for the San Joaquin Valley for the next three weeks as ICU bed capacity fell to 6.3 percent. As of Wednesday, Dec. 9, it is at 5.3 percent.
Fresno County’s ICU bed capacity is currently at 0 percent.
The state is urging Californians to stay home and limit visiting other households.
Clovis City Manager Luke Serpa gave city council a COVID-19 update at the December 7 city council meeting.
Serpa said that there is currently no new data coming from the county because of staff being out for a few weeks.
However, Serpa did mention that the day-over-day new cases in the county are very high and are getting closer to those numbers that we saw in the summer.
Serpa also mentioned that the day-over-day new cases numbers in the state are at a catastrophic level with a very considerate spike within the last few weeks. He said that these numbers are way much higher than the numbers we saw for the summer in the state.
He said the amount of new cases seen over the last few weeks was one of the reasons for the state to issue the stay-at-home orders.
However, Serpa mentioned that the biggest reason for the new state orders was the hospitalizations and ICU bed capacity. He said that for Fresno County, COVID-19 hospitalizations are higher than before and even higher than the numbers we saw this past summer.
“It’s a very challenging time for our region right now and state wise, is a very challenging time for business everywhere.” Serpa said.
With this order in place, most in-door activity will cease. Restaurants will only be take-out or delivery, hair salons and barbers can no longer operate inside.
Bars, Wineries, breweries, and distillers will no longer have outdoor or indoor activity.
Retails are at 20 percent capacity; people must refrain from eating or drinking indoors.
No indoor services for places of worship and political expression.
Sectors that will remain open with the exception of 100 percent masking and physical distancing will be schools that received a waiver, non-urgent medical and dental care, and critical infrastructure.
Special hours could be implicated for senior citizens and others who have chronic health conditions and those with compromised immune systems.
For more info on the new Stay-At-Home order visit, https://covid19.ca.gov/.