SACRAMENTO, Calif — The majority of California could be under stay-at-home restrictions within the week, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday.
That announcement left many people are wondering when their area could be under the orders.
The latest information from the California Department of Health and Human Services shows the Greater Sacramento Region has around 567 ICU beds, with 140 or 24.7% still available.
The San Joaquin Valley region has more ICU beds overall, 657, with 137 or 20.9% still available. Based on the way these numbers are moving, CHHS officials say they expect these regions to be under stay-at-home orders within a week.
The criteria for the order? The ICU capacity in a region would need to dip below 15%. So how were counties divided into regions?
"These regions are considered and constructed based upon pre-existing, mutual aid systems in the state of California," explained Newsom.
Each region is comprised of roughly a dozen counties and there are five total. They are Northern California, the Bay Area, Greater Sacramento, San Joaquin Valley, and Southern California.
As of Friday, all regions were below 26% ICU capacity. Northern California was at 18.6%. The Bay Area was at 25.3%. The Greater Sacramento region was at 22.2%. The San Joaquin Valley was at 19.7%. Southern California was at 20.6%
Still, as Newsom explained, health experts are worried about the coming weeks.
"The effects of Thanksgiving, they have not yet been felt," Newsom said. "They will be felt in a number of weeks. Dr. Fauci said it best. He says, 'We should anticipate a surge on top of a surge.'"
In other words, the number of patients in hospitals right now doesn't even reflect Thanksgiving travel or gatherings. Those numbers aren't expected to hit for another week at the earliest because of the expected 3-week lag between infections and hospitalizations.
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