Gov. Newsom warns of stay-at-home order if surge continues at current rate
Governor Gavin Newsom shared startling numbers in his latest coronavirus update and issued a warning of more drastic action that if the case and hospitalization surge continue at its current rate.
You can watch the full update below:
"If these trends continue, we're going to have to take much more dramatic, arguably drastic action," Newsom said.
The governor added that there could be "the potential for a stay-at-home order for those regions in purple."
As of Nov. 30, 51 of 58 counties are in the purple tier, this accounts for 99.1% of the state's population.
Riverside County COVID UPDATE (Nov 30) - County reaches record-high in coronavirus hospitalizations
The state reported 14,034 new cases over the past 24 hours, the highest day-to-day increase since the start of the pandemic. During the previous surge in July, the day-to-day case increase peaked at around 12,800.
The action follows what Newsom called an 89% increase in hospitalizations statewide over the past 14 days, and projections that the number of hospitalizations could double or triple within a month, based on the surging case numbers over the past two weeks. The state projects that 78% of hospital beds will be filled by Christmas Eve, and all currently available intensive care unit beds will be occupied by mid-December.
California’s #COVID19 hospitalizations have increased by 89% in the last two weeks.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) November 30, 2020
If these trends continue, our current hospitalizations could increase by 2-3 times within ONE MONTH.
"We're now looking in real time at hospitalization numbers and ICU capacity in those regions," he said. "We are assessing this in real time over the next day or two to make determinations of deep purple moves in those purple tier status (counties) that is more equivalent, more in line with the stay-at-home order that folks were familiar with at the beginning of this year, with modifications in terms of the work that we are currently doing.''
This is the tipping point.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) November 30, 2020
CA has worked hard to prepare for a surge—but we can’t sustain the record high cases we’re seeing.
Current projections show CA will run out of current ICU beds before Christmas Eve.
Please stay safe & stay home as much as you can for next few weeks. pic.twitter.com/5NJYzHokhE
Newsom noted that all hospitals have the ability to increase bed capacity, and the state has 11 surge facilities planned statewide that can add nearly 1,900 beds. But providing staffing for all of those beds could be an issue, he said.
Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state's Health and Human Services Secretary, noted that since hospital numbers tend to rise about two weeks later than cases are confirmed, the impact of the infection surge over the past two weeks has not even begun to impact the already elevated hospitalization numbers. Ghaly said everything is on the table in terms of confronting the surge, including the possible stay-at-home order.
"Everything is on the table in considering how we effectively guide the state through this, and working with our local partners to make sure what we do is both impactful and as time-limited as possible," Ghaly said. We know this is hard for all Californians, and (we are) making sure that we choose something that will make a difference but that we can track that difference and give people some confidence that we will only do it as long as we need to bring the hospitals into a situation that they can handle the incoming patient numbers and provide high-quality care in a way that protects our health care workforce as well.''
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