Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that the state is preparing for a surge on top of a surge of COVID-19 cases after December’s holiday gatherings, as emergency room care is being slowed in some parts of the state.
California officials on Tuesday are expected to extend the stay-at-home orders for the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California regions as hospitals there are running low on intensive care unit beds for COVID-19 patients ahead of the expected post-holiday surge. The stay-at-home orders are triggered when the remaining ICU capacity dips below 15%.
Statewide, California saw a 38% increase in COVID-19-related hospitalizations in the past 14 days. Newsom said Monday that while the majority of the state is currently seeing a plateauing of new hospital admissions, Southern California continues to see higher case rates and routine ER care is being slowed in some places.
“Routine emergency room care is being slowed down,” he said. “If you think this doesn’t impact you, if you think somehow you’re immune from impacts of COVID, there’s the direct impact, and that is the transmission of this virus. There’s the indirect impact — God forbid you have a stroke or heart attack, you have a car accident or you have other acute-care needs — the impact of this virus, this pandemic is being felt on the entire hospital system, and that impact obviously could impact each and every one of us, God forbid that we’re in need of emergency care, particularly now in LA County.”
>> Hear more from the governor in the video below.
Newsom noted that the good news about plateauing hospitalizations isn’t expected to last.
“We likely will experience in two weeks, 10, 14, 18 days from now, this surge stacked on top of these other surges related to holiday activities,” he said.
Dr. Mark Ghaly, California’s secretary of Health and Human Services, said that while the regional stay-at-home orders have helped slow the virus’s spread, now is not the time for Californians to let their guard down.
“The trends have started to come down a little bit, but it’s not enough,” he said. “We need people not to let up their guard, to take this as seriously as possible so we can get through the middle of January, the end of January, continue to get the vaccine out into out communities.”
As of Saturday, more than 260,000 COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in California. Newsom said the state will be putting out details soon on how the COVID-19 vaccine hierarchy will be enforced in California.
“I just want to make this crystal clear: If you skip the line or you intend to skip the line, you will be sanctioned, you will lose your license,” the governor said.
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