An increase in coronavirus cases during the holidays could lead to extended home requests for Southern California and other regions.
The earliest date when Southern California would have qualified to exit the current order was Monday, but state officials said Sunday that the area and many other areas in the state will likely continue to follow the restrictions for several more weeks as the recent increase prompted Hospitals to breaking point.
Restrictions include reduced capacity in retail stores; Closing some businesses including barbershops, nail salons, card rooms, museums, zoos and aquariums; Most hotel gatherings and stays for tourism and outdoor dining are banned.
Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom Express doubt Southern California and San Joaquin Valley will drop out of the state’s ranking by Monday due to the ongoing wear of ICU beds for COVID-19 patients.
Homestay applications will remain in effect until the expected ICU capacity in the region is or is above 15%, as per state directive. In the Southern California and San Joaquin Valley regions – which collectively cover 23 of California’s 58 counties – available ICU capacity is currently 0%.
This does not mean that the ICU beds are not occupied at all, as the state is using a weighted formula to ensure some remain open to patients who do not have COVID-19. But officials and experts warn that overcrowding in the ICU could put doctors and nurses at risk, putting the quality of care at risk for everyone, including Covid-19 patients, heart attack victims and those seriously injured in a car accident.
„It is likely that the regional home stay system will extend to many areas in California,” the California Department of Public Health said in a statement on Sunday. Once the county reaches the ICU threshold of 15% or more, it must maintain this condition for four weeks.
The agency stated that the state has 2122,806 confirmed cases so far, with more than 24,000 deaths. There were over 50,000 newly confirmed cases registered on Saturday.
On Saturday, Los Angeles County health officials reported 29,423 cases of the new coronavirus during Christmas Day and Saturday combined. Friday’s numbers – 15,538 cases – have been delayed due to a Spectrum internet outage in the Los Angeles area.
Local health agencies also reported 136 deaths during the two-day period. The average number of new coronavirus cases in the province was around 14,000 per day and 88 COVID-19 deaths per day over the past week.
Hospitals across the county are overcrowded. Some are running Dangerously low On their supply of oxygen, which is critical to treating critically ill Covid-19 patients who are starting to choke on their inflamed lungs with the virus. The emergency rooms are so crowded that ambulances have to wait eight hours to drop off patients or are sometimes sent to remote hospitals.
Under one scenario, experts predict that there may be an increase in new coronavirus cases by mid-January, an increase in hospitalizations by late January and early February, and another surge of deaths by mid-February.
Usually, the quick succession of holidays in the fall and winter seasons allows people to party and spend time with loved ones in no time.
But this leaves little time for MERS cases to start before they rise again, causing spikes above altitudes.
Dr. Robert Kim Farley, a medical epidemiologist and infectious disease expert at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, said a person exposed to COVID-19 at a Christmas gathering could be contagious by New Year’s Eve.
However, the individual may be asymptomatic, go to a New Year’s Eve party and spread the disease without his knowledge.
In addition to a high rate of infection – about 1 in 95 in Los Angeles County is contagious with the virus, according to county estimates – the holidays are causing a „massive viral fire,” he said.
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