California Gov. Gavin Newsom took the dramatic step this week of ordering the state’s nearly 40 million residents to stay at home. That order on Thursday was followed by similar orders in states including New York, Illinois and Nevada.

These were actions welcomed by health care professionals who are trying to prepare hospitals even in the midst of the pandemic, as they watch the Italian hospitals buckle under the demand of the fast-spreading virus.

“I think the stay at home order is necessary and I think it should be done across the nation,” said Haig Aintablian, president of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine Resident and Student Association. He’s a Southern California-based, emergency department resident. “But I wonder if that might be too little, too late. Because this virus is showing symptoms so much later.”

So, he says, it may have spread too widely already. There is still a national shortage in testing so that’s an unknown.

Meanwhile health care workers across the country are sounding alarms about a shortage in personal protective gear for health care workers as the cases multiply.

Aintablian said he’s hearing from doctors and residents in California that supplies are low at some hospitals and in a few cases could be depleted in two weeks. Meanwhile the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance keeps changing, including suggesting using a bandana or homemade mask in a crisis when no face mask is available.

“It’s almost ridiculous from our perspective because we need to be the most protected, because if we get sick, we’re a hazard to our other patients because we could get them infected,” Aintablian said. “If we’re not there to fight this battle, who is?”

Especially because, up to this point, he said, so many people haven’t taken the quarantine seriously and the virus is spreading. Until yesterday hiking trails and parks were crowded with people in the Los Angeles area and over the past week retail stores were generally open.

“My biggest concern is the safety of all of us in the emergency department. If one of us goes down, then it has a toppling effect on everyone else, and we’re not able to stop that unless we have really good protective gear on throughout our shifts,” Aintablian said.

California is the country’s most populous state. The governor says if the spread of the disease is left unchecked more than half of the state would be infected in two months based on certain models. There are over 1,000 confirmed cases in California and at least 20 deaths.

The state, municipalities, counties and hospitals are scrambling to ready themselves in the midst of a pandemic. Newsom said the state has about 75,000 licensed hospital beds and he estimates at surge capacity it would have 88,000. Newsom also said the state has about 11,400 intensive-care unit beds, both for adults and children. Other estimates put that lower.

But if the infection rate does meet that worst-case scenario projection, he said the hospitals will be nearly 20,000 beds short for the wave of people that will need to be hospitalized.

The state is working to get more beds. It’s leasing a hospital in Northern California that was on the verge of closing, Seton Medical Center in Daly City. It’s acquiring another hospital in southern California. It’s also in talks to lease motels, hotels and university dormitories for use during the pandemic. The state legislature passed an emergency funding bill of $1.1 billion earlier this week.

Individual hospitals and networks have been getting ready for weeks and are working in coordination with the wider city, county and state system.

Johnese Spisso, the head of UCLA’s hospitals, said the system’s leaders started planning in January when they saw the spread begin.

The system contains an academic medical center and Level-1 trauma center with four hospitals and about 180 clinics. They set up a command center that started meeting daily by February and they had tents pitched outside the medical center by the first week of March to screen patients.

They’ve gone from doing 40 tests a day to 100. Next week Spisso hopes to be up to 500 with federal support and changes the FDA is making. Not enough, she said, but better.

“We definitely would like to be doing as many of the tests as possible here in Los Angeles. We’re a big county,” she said. “We have 10 million people. So we want to make sure that we and other hospitals and health systems are really working together to make sure we can begin flattening the curve.”

Now the system is looking at getting more ICU bed capacity by converting in-patient beds and moving patients with less severe symptoms to other sites. Administrators are trying to stock up on personal protective gear and ventilators, and train additional staff.

“We feel that we are prepared. You know, we’ve all had some time to watch what was happening in other countries and kind of look to the future,” she said.

The system is planning, she said, for the worst-case scenario, looking at where to put satellite tents to house patients, where buildings can be converted to hospital use, and constantly assessing if there are enough ventilators and staff, and how to work with other hospitals and health systems to get everyone what they need.

“But we need everybody’s help. We can’t do it alone. As the health system, we need the public to be strictly adhering to these guidelines,” she said.

Because if the curve isn’t flattened?

“The exponential increase is something that we can’t get ahead of,” Spisso said.

Updated at 5:48 p.m. ET

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday afternoon issued an order for all Illinois residents to stay at home, as the deadly coronavirus has spread to a quarter of the state’s counties and infected more than 500 people.

The stricter limits go into effect on Saturday.

They follow a similar order by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who issued a mandate earlier on Friday, and another by California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday. The governors of Connecticut, Nevada and New Jersey also say they want people to stay at home.

“We know this will be hard,” Pritzker said in a news conference, adding that the new rules are expected to last until April 7.

“That gives us time to see whether or not this social distancing … is having the desired effect of slowing the spread of COVID-19, he said.

Pritzker said essential services including grocery stores, pharmacies and gas stations will remain open, and restaurants will be allowed to continue take-out services. But most other places will have to shut down.

However, he pleaded with people not “to rush out to a grocery store or gas station” to stockpile essential goods.

Health care professionals and other essential workers will be provided with safe child care, according to Pritzker, who offered no details on how such programs will work. Students will also continue receiving free meals, he said.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo took what what he calls “the ultimate step” in his state to protect the public, signing an executive order “mandating that 100% of workforce must stay home, excluding essential services.”

The order, which Cuomo announced Friday, excludes businesses such as pharmacies and grocery stores, along with essential services such as utilities and Internet providers.

“When I talk about the most drastic action we can take — this is the most drastic action we can take,” Cuomo said.

In addition to the workforce order, all nonessential gatherings of individuals in New York state are now canceled — “of ANY size for ANY reason,” Cuomo said via Twitter. The ban applies to any party, celebration or social event.

New York has confirmed more than 7,100 cases of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, making it by far the largest single source of the nearly 15,500 cases now reported in the U.S. As of Friday, 38 people in the state had died from the respiratory disease. Nationwide, the coronavirus is blamed for killing at least 205 people.

New York has tested more than 32,000 people for the virus, including 10,000 in one day, Cuomo said. And he said the high number of new cases — New York added some 2,900 coronavirus cases from Thursday to Friday — should not in itself worry people.

“It was the reality,” he said. “The tests are just demonstrating what was.”

But in a separate part of his news conference, the governor also said his state must add more hospital beds and ventilators to accommodate the influx of COVID-19 patients.

“The rate of increase in the number of cases portends a total overwhelming of our hospital system,” Cuomo said.

New York is working to boost its number of hospital beds, which currently stands at around 50,000. The governor’s office says around 18% of the state’s coronavirus cases, or 1,255 people, are currently hospitalized.

“I believe these policies will save lives. And I’m not willing to put a price on a human life,” Cuomo said at a news conference late Friday morning.

Staying at home doesn’t mean not being permitted to exercise outdoors.

“It’s running. It’s hiking,” Cuomo said of the preferred activities. “It’s not playing basketball with five other people. That’s not what it is. It’s not laying in a park with 10 other people and sharing a beer. That’s not what this is.”

The New York order is similar to escalating steps taken in California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered the state’s 40 million residents to stay at home indefinitely to stop the virus from spreading.

As of noon ET Friday, Washington state had reported 1,376 coronavirus cases, and California had reported 1,030, according to a COVID-19 dashboard created by the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering, which reports coronavirus numbers in near real time.

Coronavirus: Know The Basics (And Wash Your Hands)

What are the symptoms?

The primary symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, cough and shortness of breath. Some people also experience fatigue, headaches and, less frequently, diarrhea. Cases can range from mild to moderate to severe. About 80 percent of cases so far seem to be mild, according to the World Health Organization.

To prevent the coronavirus from spreading, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends washing hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or using a hand sanitizer if a sink isn’t available. The WHO says people should wear face masks only if they’re sick or caring for someone who is.

What should I do if I think I’m sick?

If you think you’ve been exposed to COVID-19 and develop symptoms, call your doctor. Many state and local health departments have set up hotlines to answer questions, so that’s another good place to start. It’s important that you don’t expose others. Call your doctor before you go to their clinic so they can take necessary precautions.

How do I protect my home?

Wash your hands as soon as you walk through the door. Avoid sharing personal items such dishes, cups, utensils. Clean and disinfect “high-touch” surfaces like door handles and cellphones every day.

How do I self-quarantine? And what does it mean?

The CDC has a guide for caring for yourself at home if you have a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19.