Pandemic Worsens As More Restrictions Loom In Riverside County

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — Citing rising coronavirus hospitalizations and deaths over the past month, Gov. Gavin Newsom Thursday announced plans for a "regional stay-at-home order" that will likely be implemented in coming days across Southern California — including Riverside County — and other regions where intensive-care unit beds are filling up beyond capacity.

The order will be triggered when ICU-bed availability falls below 15 percent across the Southern California region, which is expected to happen over the next few days as the surge continues.

Riverside County ICU beds are at 17 percent availability, or 83 percent capacity, county spokesperson Brooke Federico said Thursday.

In July, most of Riverside County's 17 acute-care hospitals reached or surpassed their ICU-bed capacity, but at the time Federico said the hospitals were converting traditional beds into ICU beds.

The overall licensed hospital bed capacity in Riverside County is 3,560 with 385 licensed ICU beds, according to the county's "Readiness and Reopening Framework" document. According to the document, the county can potentially add an additional 2,464 beds and an additional 716 ICU beds.

Regardless of where Riverside County's ICU capacity is in coming days, the anticipated stay-at-home order will apply to the entire Southern California region, which includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, Imperial, Inyo, Mono, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

Newsom said four other regions will likely dip below the threshold over the next several days — the Bay Area, greater Sacramento area, Northern California and San Joaquin Valley.

"The bottom line is, if we don't act now, our hospital system will be overwhelmed," Newsom said. "If we don't act now, we'll continue to see the death rate climb, more lives lost."

RELATED ARTICLE: COVID-19's Impact On Riverside County Hospitals, Staffers

When triggered, the stay-at-home order will be in place for three weeks and will bar gatherings of people from different households. It will also force the closure of all bars, wineries, personal service businesses, hair salons and barbershops, indoor recreational facilities, museums, zoos, aquariums, movie theaters, family entertainment centers, cardrooms, satellite wagering and amusement parks.

Schools with waivers will be allowed to remain open, along with "critical infrastructure," and retail stores will be allowed to stay open but with limited capacity of up to 20 percent. Restaurants will be restricted to takeout and delivery service only. Hotels will be allowed to open "for critical infrastructure support only," while churches will be restricted to outdoor-only services. Entertainment production — including professional sports — can continue without live audiences. RELATED ARTICLE: Schools Reopening During 2020-21 Year In Doubt: Riverside County

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."

Counties can individually re-emerge from under the order if, after three weeks, ICU bed availability rises above 15 percent.

In response to a reporter's question about enforcement of the order by local law enforcement, Newsom said Thursday the state would possibly withhold Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act dollars to noncompliant counties and redirect that money to other jurisdictions. In Riverside County, much of that money is directed to local business owners and individuals who are adversely impacted economically by the pandemic.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco has repeatedly stated that his deputies will not respond to calls about people/businesses/organizations that don't adhere to state orders.

To date, the state's withholding of CARES funding to Riverside County has not taken place, and there has been no correspondence from the state to the county about possible future withholding, according to Riverside County spokesperson Brooke Federico.

Newsom stressed that the order comes as ICU admissions due to COVID-19 have spiked statewide by 67 percent in recent weeks, in conjunction with a statewide surge in cases that has also seen a disturbing rise in fatalities. He said the state reported just 14 deaths on Nov. 2, but now has had back-to-back days of 113 deaths, with nearly 1,000 fatalities in last four days.

On Thursday Newsom also said the state 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," Ghaly said.

Newsom again said the state has 11 medical "surge" facilities on standby to open and provide hospital bed space. One of them, the ARCO/Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento, will open Dec. 9, and another is set to open in Imperial County.

Included among the other nine surge centers that could be opened are the Fairview Development Center in Orange County, the Riverside County Fairgrounds, the vacant Sears building in Riverside and Palomar Medical Center in San Diego, Newsom said.

The governor stressed that the pandemic emergency won't last forever.

"There is light at the end of the tunnel," he said. "We are a few months away from truly seeing real progress with the vaccine. ... We do not anticipate having to do this once again. But we all really need to step up. We need to meet this moment head on and we need to do everything we can to stem the tide, bend the curve and give us the time necessary by bending that curve to get those vaccines in the hands of all Californians all across the state."

Newsom announced Monday that California is set to receive 327,000 COVID-19 vaccines in mid-December. On Thursday, he laid out which Californians will be first in line to receive a vaccine. Due to the small number of doses available for a state with nearly 40 million people, only individuals in high-risk settings will have access to the initial round of vaccination, Newsom said. Read more here.

Coronavirus cases in Riverside County increased by 900 Thursday, along with 13 more deaths, while hospitalizations continued to climb.

The total number of infections recorded countywide since the public health documentation period began in early March is 86,797, compared to 85,896 on Wednesday, according to the Riverside University Health System.

Officials said the number of deaths stemming from COVID-19 complications related to COVID-19 stands at 1,457.

The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations countywide is at 649, compared to 628 on Wednesday, including 124 intensive care unit patients — a drop of two from a day ago, according to RUHS data.

Passing the 550 mark in suspected or confirmed coronavirus hospitalizations earlier this week exceeded the county's previous "surge" recorded in the latter half of July.

—City News Service, Patch Editor Toni McAllister

This article originally appeared on the Temecula Patch