Socal Shutdown Expected Sunday As ICU Bed Capacity Plummets

LOS ANGELES, CA — Southern California hospitals reached a critical shortage of intensive care unit beds Friday, triggering the threshold for Regional Stay-at-Home Order across 11 Southland counties, according to figures released Friday evening by the California Department of Public Health. If the situation doesn't improve Saturday, the widespread shutdown is expected to go into effect Sunday in order to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

As of Friday night, Southern California hospitals had just 13.1% capacity left in their ICU units. If it remains under 15% by 12:59 p.m. Saturday, the Regional Stay at Home Order will go into effect at 11:59 p.m. Sunday under the order issued Thursday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The Southern California region consists of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, Imperial, Inyo, Mono, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

There is little reason to expect improvement over the next 24 hours or over the course of the next week. Southland counties have been shattering daily records for new cases since the end of November. Los Angeles County, the epicenter of the state's outbreak, reported a staggering 8,860 new coronavirus infections on Friday. The county has seen hospitalizations double over the past two weeks, and the death toll on Friday reached 60, three-times what it was just two weeks ago in Los Angeles. Hospitalizations and fatalities have yet to catch up with the latest surge of new cases. The newly infected tend to take two to four weeks before requiring hospitalization.

When triggered, the stay-at-home order will be in place for three weeks and will bar gatherings of people from different households. Under the order, the following businesses/recreational facilities will be forced to close:

• indoor and outdoor playgrounds;
• indoor recreational facilities;
• hair salons and barbershops;
• personal care services;
• museums, zoos, and aquariums;
• movie theaters;
• wineries;
• bars, breweries and distilleries;
• family entertainment centers;
• cardrooms and satellite wagering;
• limited services;
• live audience sports; and
• amusement parks.

Schools with waivers will be allowed to remain open, along with "critical infrastructure" and retail stores, which will be limited to 20% of capacity. Restaurants will be restricted to takeout and delivery service only. Hotels would be allowed to open "for critical infrastructure support only," while churches would be restricted to outdoor only services. Entertainment production -- including professional sports -- would be allowed to continue without live audiences.

Some of those restrictions are already in effect in select counties.

Newsom said the order is "fundamentally predicated on the need to stop gathering with people outside of your household, to do what you can to keep most of your activities outside and, of course, always ... wear face coverings, wear a mask."

Newsom also noted that the state still has a travel advisory in place recommending against non-essential travel and urging people to quarantine when they return to the state. When the regional stay-at-home order is triggered, it will strongly urge residents to cancel any non-essential travel.

Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state's Health and Human Services secretary, acknowledged there is no real mechanism for enforcing such a travel restriction, but the state will rely on public cooperation.

"We believe that really emphasizing this is what we hope our citizens will do because their communities are at particularly high risk, their hospitals are having difficulty keeping available ICU beds open, that people will restrict their travel statewide," he said.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.