Mayor London Breed matched that perspective, saying if you are not ahead of the virus you are falling far behind very quickly.

To contain the spread, San Francisco is joining several other Bay Area jurisdictions to enforce a stay at home order prior to government action.

RELATED: Here’s What’s Closed on an Order for Staying Home in the Bay Area

Contrary to the plan announced by Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday, the Bay Area regional home stay order will go into effect that Sunday through January 6th.

San Francisco, along with other counties in the Bay Area, will opt for the governor’s regional Stay at Home Order starting Sunday at 10 p.m.

We are well on the way to running out of hospital beds for patient care the day after Christmas. We have to turn this around now. https://t.co/F0qwFnCb9e

– London Breed (@LondonBreed) December 4, 2020

Breed made it clear in her message on Friday that what San Francisco is going through is difficult, but “there is a light at the end of the tunnel”.

WATCH: Mayor Breed Says What San Francisco Is Going Through Is Difficult, But “There’s A Light At The End Of The Tunnel”

Hospital admissions and cases are increasing in San Francisco, and Dr. Colfax said those numbers are likely to get worse in the coming days and weeks.

The city is recording an average of 140 new cases per day, compared to just 34 per day in October.

“We were in a much better place then,” said Breed.

Colfax said the city has about a week to stabilize the number of COVID-19 patients in the city’s hospital system.

#BREAKING Starting Sunday December 6th, these activities are required to cease operations in San Francisco via @LondonBreed: hair and nail salons, hair salons / tattoos / beauticians, outdoor dining, open air museums, playgrounds

– Kate Larsen (@ KateABC7) December 4, 2020

“Our biggest fear all along is that we won’t have a bed for you or your mother or your grandmother or grandfather if they get sick,” said Breed. “(It’s) the reality we’ll face if we don’t slow the spread. The actions we’ve tried so far just haven’t turned the curve the way we need them to.”

RELATED: 5 Bay Area counties to announce new restrictions, sources say sources

As part of the Bay Area home stay arrangement, restaurants will be limited to take away and delivery, personal services such as nail salons and hair salons will be closed, and retail store capacity will be limited to 20%.

If the virus continues at the current rate, Dr. Colfax announced that San Francisco hospitals will be short of ICU beds by December 26th.
“If this trend continues and we don’t slow the spread of the virus, we will no longer be able to care for the people in San Francisco’s hospitals, not just because of the beds, but also because we won’t have enough nurses and doctors, to “adequately care for people,” warned Colfax.

According to Colfax, 75% of hospital beds in California are currently occupied.

“There will be no place to relocate patients. There will be no other place to hire more nurses or doctors, which we could otherwise do in a localized health crisis,” warned Colfax.

He emphasized that this is why the city is proceeding so “aggressively”.

“It’s going to be tough this time, but the alternative is unthinkable,” said Colfax.

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SACRAMENTO (CBS SF) – Hopes that the Bay Area could get out of the current COVID-at-home regulation was reality-checked Monday after Governor Gavin Newsom announced the region’s ICU capacity had fallen to a new low of 0.7%.

During its press conference on Monday to get an update on the COVID-19 pandemic in California, Newsom said that state director of health and human services, Dr. Mark Ghaly, likely on Tuesday, will announce the continuation of the stay-at-home order in the Bay Area.

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“Given the current ICU capacity, we can assume that the stay at home will continue unless these prognoses differ materially,” Newsom said.

The health order is triggered when the intensive capacity of a region falls below 15%. Currently, ICU capacities across the state were as follows:

Southern California: 0%
San Joaquin Valley: 0%
Bay Area: 0.7%
Greater Sacramento: 9.7%
Northern California: 35%

According to the state’s COVID dashboard, California has 2,710,801 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Monday, resulting in 29,965 deaths. Other data from Johns Hopkins University showed the state topped 30,000 deaths.

Newsom re-listed the staggering number of casualties the pandemic has caused for residents of the state. Another 264 people died of COVID on Sunday, and an average of 476 people died per day over the past seven days. Another 5,681 people have died in the past 14 days, Newsom said.

The governor said there was evidence that the contagion rate had increased over the past week. While COVID hospital stays increased 6% in the past two weeks, they increased 0.3% in the past week. Similarly, there was a 13% increase in intensive care admissions in the last 14 days compared to a 5% increase in the last seven days.

Newsom said as part of California’s “all hands on deck” approach to adopting the COVID vaccine, the state has added the pool of those who can deliver COVID vaccines to dentists, pharmacy technicians, National Guard strike teams, paramedics, and rescue workers Doctors expanded assistants, midwives, psychiatric technicians, and others.

The governor also said the state was opening three major vaccination sites at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Padres Stadium in San Diego, and the CalEXPO racetrack in Sacramento to expedite vaccination for priority groups while maintaining social distancing with other facilities allow to be announced.

Later on Monday, Oakland Athletics and Alameda County’s health officials announced that the Oakland Coliseum would also host a drive-through vaccination clinic.

CONTINUE READING: The family’s pet causes the fiery Concord gas station to crash

Newsom recalled that the current focus for vaccination continued to be on the first group of subjects, particularly in the healthcare sector and among residents of long-term care facilities.

“These frontline workers – that’s why we want to vaccinate the vaccines – so many of them themselves are among those categories of vaccines and the residents who are most vulnerable in these congregation facilities,” Newsom said. “We’ve teamed up with CVS and Walgreens, who make up the lion’s share – not in every county. LA County is a big exception – but especially and in terms of content in all of these other community care facilities. “

ALSO READ: Santa Clara County Supes Call For More Transparency With Vaccination Information

Newsom said the state has built-in flexibility to administer the more than two million doses being delivered into the next stages and stages of vaccine priority groups in the event that doses are queued where no one is on hand to handle the dose to obtain.

“And we’ll fill in details when we start getting more doses … We’re obviously going to need more doses to get into this next phase, and we hope to learn more with the new one.” [Biden-Harris] Administration soon what their intention is to release more of the stock of cans, ”Newsom said. “And we’re going to start seeing more clarity and then meet your expectations and set some schedules, or at least some expected schedules, so we can deal with the fear that I know will be felt out there when we have this availability to have.”

Newsom said the state is investing $ 40 million in a media campaign in 18 languages ​​to get people to vaccinate.

During the Q&A session with reporters, Newsom was asked about concerns about the possibility of armed protests at the State Capitol in Sacramento following the deadly siege of the US Capitol last week

“The answer is pretty much taken for granted by anyone who has been near the Capitol, that everyone, I believe, is on high alert to make sure everyone is safe and secure,” Newsom said. People’s freedom of speech can be improved, but there is no violence. “

Newsom also said the National Guard would be activated “as needed”.

When asked about the possibility of President Donald Trump facing a second trial after instigating the US Capitol riot, Newsom said “I’m all for it” before returning his attention to the pandemic response.

MORE NEWS: Asian-American attacks: victim’s grandson speaks out; Suspect arrested after stabbing 2 women in San Francisco

“I’m focusing on this vaccine distribution, I’m focusing on the climb, I’m trying to drive to get us through this extraordinarily challenging period,” he said. “I support it … but that’s not my focus right now. My focus is openly on you, your family and your safety when it comes to issues related to getting us through this very challenging wave of this pandemic. “

The post Bay Space ICU Capability Tumbles To 0.7%; Keep-At-House Order To Be Prolonged – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

The daily beast

Beloved Michigan Cop was on vacation. COVID made it its last.

Photo illustration by The Daily Beast / MSP Michigan State Police First District Trooper Herman Brown was sometimes actually thanked by people he arrested. Sharon McCarthy, testified. That included people who were their wildest or worst selves when Brown walked on the scene. “You’re acting silly,” he told them. “Calm down.” Then he gave a confirmation. “You’re still a good person,” he said, his words matching his voice and behavior. A QAnon-curious mom helped lead Michigan back to COVID Hell after nearly 28 years. As a “street dog” patrolling Counties Monroe and Lenawee in a radio-controlled car, he still chooses to see the best of his fellow human beings . “He made people feel special,” McCarthy said best day, “she told The Daily Beast. “And he’s never judged them by the five- or ten-minute interactions we have with people.” Leaflet He still loved his job too. He would start every tour with a standard gear to the dispatcher. “This is unit 1414. I will put into service … and I will get a mighty bite out of the crime.” Along with the other standard gear, Brown would do this at this time of COVID-19, he has a mask. He took all recommended precautions, McCarthy said. In an October ruling over a lawsuit by the GOP-dominated Michigan legislature, the state’s Supreme Court overturned Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s mask mandate, but the state Department of Health’s mask order remains in place but is unenforceable under the Seat Belt Act that allows you to enter Can get ticket from a state soldier. Too many people in Michigan have been too careless even as variants began circulating Proof of this: a surge in new COVID-19 since early March, the state now leading the country in per capita cases. Brown seemed like a good time to take a two-week vacation to Florida with his girlfriend. But he was either already infected with COVID-19 or c Something down there where Governor Ron DeSantis is not enforcing any rules. Brown did not tell his comrades at 14 Monroe Post that he had gotten sick. “He was still texting and pretending he was still on vacation,” McCarthy said. “He didn’t want us to worry,” the friend called his coworkers in mid-March to say that Brown was on a ventilator in a Florida hospital. His radio car was still parked where he’d left it on vacation, and it seemed impossible that he wasn’t going to be okay. He couldn’t see any visitors, but McCarthy assumed she was going to Florida and handing in a soldier teddy bear. “I knew I couldn’t see him,” she said later. A call from Brown’s friend back home, “As soon as I said hello, I could hear her crying, so I knew,” McCarthy recalled. The news hit the other soldiers as well as any family who lost an irreplaceable loved one. Lots of grown men cry, ”McCarthy later said. “I think more than just a woman.” She comforted herself with the thought that Brown had known how they all felt about him. “You couldn’t help but love him,” she said. And so they didn’t imagine losing a colleague. “As a police officer, you expect something job-related,” she said. “They’re injured or killed at work.” Here was another type of threat – one that, despite vaccines and a year of lockdown and misery, hasn’t even gone away. Hands and never turn your back, ”McCarthy said. “This is something you cannot defend yourself against.” Despite all the precautions they had all taken, the best of them had fallen. “We know how careful we were,” she said. “And it was just a reminder that this invisible enemy was out there. If it gets you, it gets you. «That was certain. Even so, there were so many unknowns: “I don’t think we’ll ever find out,” said McCarthy. “I don’t think we’ll ever really know where or how or why this happened.” In the unreality of the loss, McCarthy remembered what made Brown so special. “There will never be a Trooper Brown again,” she said. “Whenever he got to the scene, you expected things to calm down and be handled properly. Nothing surprised him … even if someone was walking around screaming and screaming. “New York’s ‘mystery’ surge in COVID cases kills experts. She said Brown often kept in touch with young people he arrested and helped them make better decisions than they were,” she said. “He did that in his spare time.” But a child didn’t have to worry to get Brown’s attention. A 6-year-old boy invited Brown – a former Marine – to attend his school on Veterans Day and the Soldier stayed all morning, attended classes, and walked the halls with his enthusiastic host. He attended the meeting where he stood in the stands with the children during the pledge of allegiance. One photo shows him huge and in uniform, but with a smile that obviously calms the young people around. “It really was him,” said McCarthy. He was also what McCarthy called “a great man who loved to bake”. His specialty was his grandmother’s chocolate pound cake. “We’d always ask for the recipe and he’d say, ‘You know what, I forgot as soon as I made it,'” McCarthy recalled. “We were hoping he could retire [finally give it up]He had passed the 25-year mark so he could have retired at any time, but he stuck to it. They had to go on without him now, and McCarthy was on patrol the day after Brown’s death when a woman driving with a boy lowered her window. “They said they knew Trooper Brown and expressed their condolences,” she said, crying, which uniformed sergeants shouldn’t do at the wheel of their radio car. “I put my sunglasses on,” she told The Daily Beast. She and her colleagues will continue to patrol as the virus surges in Michigan by 8,413 new cases were reported on Saturday. The number of hospital stays exceeded 2,700, more than twice as many when Brown went on vacation. McCarthy estimates they may never know if Brown took the COVID-19 or caught it in Florida. What they do know is that his radio car is still where he left it. “We’re waiting for him to come back,” she said. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories to your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside delves deeper into the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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CBS San Francisco Employee Report

SACRAMENTO (CBS SF) – After a record day of new COVID cases, Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Thursday a new regional stay-at-home order tied to intensive tariffs in a specific region and requiring many businesses to close.

CONTINUE READING: Brian Rohan, San Francisco dope attorney who defended the Grateful Dead, dies aged 84

Previously, the state put restrictions based on the county’s COVID case rates and hospital stays. Alameda, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Napa, Sonoma and Solano Counties are all currently in the Purple Tier, while Marin stayed in the Red Tier as of Wednesday.

The new restrictions are based on ICU capacity and are tied to hospital regions. If a region falls below the available capacity in the intensive care unit below 15 percent, the restrictions on a three-week order for the stay at home are tightened.

According to Newsom, the order could be canceled after at least three weeks if the planned intensive capacity of a region reaches or exceeds 15 percent. The planned intensive capacity of the region would be reviewed weekly if it had not reached this threshold after the third week.

Current ICU capacity projections for the state’s various hospital regions assume that much of California will fall below ICU capacity of 15 percent within the next week, which will affect Greater Sacramento, Northern California and the San Joaquin Valley in early December and Southern California will impact.

California Hospital Region Map

The Bay Area, which has fared better in terms of case numbers despite most of the region being in the purple plains, is expected to drop below the 15 percent ICU capacity threshold in mid to late December.

The governor said state health officials had long conversations with economic and business advisors to come up with the latest framework for the home order.

“Our experts and advisors are plentiful,” he said. “For a few days we have been looking across the entire spectrum for valuable insights and valuable considerations that we have brought into play.”

Newsom also explained which companies for regions would have to shut down as part of the three-week stay-at-home contracts.

“If the region is placed in the stay at home category, the bars, wineries, personal services, hair salons and the like will be temporarily closed for that three week period,” Newsom said.

Indoor and outdoor playgrounds, museums, zoos and aquariums, cinemas and family entertainment centers will also have to close under the new restrictions.

Newsom said the sectors that remain open when a region is placed under the regional stay-at-home order include:

• Schools that have received a waiver
• Critical Infrastructure
• Retail (20 percent exposure reduction capacity)
• Restaurants (takeaway and delivery)
• Places of worship are only allowed to hold services outdoors

The governor recognized the difficulties businesses, particularly restaurant retailers, were having with the pandemic restrictions and would be faced again with the new order.

“As a restaurateur himself who literally started college and started a small retail business and restaurant, I am deeply empathetic,” said Newsom.

Newsom also announced that the state will temporarily restrict all non-essential travel across the state.

Newsom also pointed out the importance of staying active and keeping connections at home while ordering. He encouraged residents to stay in touch with friends and family virtually.

He also emphasized the importance of exercise and getting outdoors.

“We would like to emphasize the following. None of us are naive, I certainly am not, from the mental stress we are all under. Not just the financial hardship that many suffer from, and even more staying at home with this order. But we want to encourage activity. Activities that again focus on not indoors, not in community facilities, not where there is a tremendous amount of mixing, but outdoors, ”Newsom said. “We recommend that you take your dog for a walk. We want you to do sports and run with a partner in your household. Go tobogganing, these outdoor winter activities, or take a stroll on the beach in our state parks or local parks. “

CONTINUE READING: Armed suspects open fire during police chase in East Bay; Family pet dog wounded

Newsom reiterates the restrictions are temporary, especially given the availability of a COVID vaccine in the next few months.

“This is not a permanent condition. This is what many predicted, as we predicted, the ultimate rise of this pandemic. At the end of the tunnel there is light. We are only months away from real progress with the vaccine: real diffusion, real accessibility, real availability, ”Newsom said. “We don’t expect to have to do this again, but we really all have to do something. We must face this moment directly and do whatever we can to contain the tide, turn the curve and give us the time it takes to get these vaccines into the hands of all Californians. “

California reported more than 20,000 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, shattering the state’s previous all-day record. A record 8,500 people are in hospital, including more than 2,000 in intensive care, and the state has fewer than 2,000 available ICU beds.

Newsom said regional health officials were working to prepare surge protectors across the state that would provide more available beds for COVID patients as case numbers continue to rise and intensive care unit capacity shrinks.

“As we stay at home and the number of intensive care units, hospitalizations and deaths increases significantly in the state of California, we move from being warm to being more active,” Newsom said.

Newsom reminded entrepreneurs that in addition to financial support for workers, the state continues to offer relief in the form of sales tax deferrals and soft loans.

“We have put together a pretty comprehensive package. Dare I say few states in the country have done more in terms of sick leave, compensation, access to health insurance and expansion, ”Newsom said. “It’s important that people take advantage of the benefits. These programs are only as good as they are available and people know about them. This support for workers has evolved, they are the law and we encourage people to take advantage of them. “

The governor also touched on the state’s plans for vaccines and warned influential people who are considering early access to a COVID vaccine.

“We’re going to be very aggressive in ensuring that those with resources and those with influence don’t crowd out those who deserve the vaccines the most,” Newsom said. “Those who think they can be ahead and those who think because they have the resources or relationships that allow them to do so will also be monitored very, very closely.”

Newsom also mentioned his plans for his homeless initiative, Project Roomkey, and said he intends to continue implementation despite the setback the program has received from some regional officials and residents.

“We are working aggressively with the new administration, the Biden administration, to provide more clarity so that the districts will be more comfortable as they expand the Roomkey model and are confident it will go beyond the calendar year,” said Newsom.

The governor admitted that this latest, and hopefully final, surge could be the biggest challenge the state has faced so far in the pandemic.

“We have to take this moment seriously, this is the most difficult moment since this pandemic began. This is the time if there ever was any doubt, put your doubts aside, put your skepticism aside, put your cynicism aside, put your ideology aside, put aside all consideration except this: lives are in balance, life will be lost if we don’t do more than ever before, ”Newsom said. “We are asked to do everything in our power to make difficult decisions that are necessary for this moment. To get through the next few weeks, to get through the next few months. “

He added, “We will be resilient and recover as a state, and we will all be rewarded for knowing we saved the lives of loved ones, we saved the lives of strangers, and we did our best to keep the spread contain this virus. “

Health officials across the state expect the surge to accelerate over the next few weeks as these cases feed into the already overwhelmed nationwide hospital system.

Santa Clara County announced a 14-day quarantine over the weekend for those traveling into the county from more than 150 miles away. There is also a 10 p.m. to 5 p.m. curfew in every Bay Area county except Marin.

Los Angeles County, the most populous country in the country with 10 million people, has also imposed stricter home restrictions and a three-week ban on personal dining in restaurants, as the county health director Barbara Ferrer called “appalling increases in numbers.” . ”

On Wednesday evening, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti issued a city order that spoke in apocalyptic tones and ordered people to stay in their homes.

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LA “is now on the verge of a devastating turning point” that could overwhelm the hospital system, “which in turn risks unnecessary suffering and death,” the mayor’s order reads.

The post Newsom Broadcasts Regional Keep-At-Residence Order For Areas With Low ICU Capability – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

San Francisco will run out of ICU beds in 17 days if the current infection rate remains stable, the San Francisco Department of Health director said on Wednesday.

“That’s when things don’t get worse and they can do very well,” said Dr. Grant Colfax at a virtual press conference.

Colfax urged residents to stay home, saying avoiding contact with others was “probably the most important message” he has tried to convey since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

“To be honest, we have a chance to reverse this serious increase and that chance is now,” he said. “But our window narrows and closes quickly.”

He said coronavirus cases have “exploded” since Thanksgiving, and the numbers are increasing by the hour.

The reproduction rate for the virus in San Francisco is now 1.5, which means that every person who gets it will infect 1.5 others. If that rate doesn’t go down, the number of hospital residents with COVID-19 will increase ten-fold by early February, he said.

Models also show that it is “plausible” that in addition to the 164 who have already succumbed to the disease, an additional 1,500 residents will die, Colfax warned. Bending the rules will have more serious consequences now than at any point during the pandemic as the virus is much more common, he said.

“The virus is right now all over our city and in so many parts of the city that it has never been seen before,” Colfax said. “Activities with an even lower risk now involve a considerable risk…. We can’t get away with things that we could get away with before. “

He said the city will receive 12,000 doses of vaccine at the first allotment, likely by December 15. The cans would go to acute hospitals and some nursing homes, he said. The spread is widespread in spring or summer, he added.

Last Friday, San Francisco and four other Bay Area counties announced they were issuing a preventive home stay order. The hospitals are so overcrowded that they have to act immediately instead of waiting for the region to cross the state threshold for such a directive.

In California, regions of the state where ICUs are busy at 15% or less capacity are subject to state orders.

Speaking at the meeting, Colfax said the ICU capacity in the city could drop to 15% this week. Thirty Franciscans are now in intensive care units and the number has “increased dramatically each day”.

Mayor London Breed, who also spoke at the press conference, praised the state’s decision to allow playgrounds to be reopened, but warned that children should only be accompanied by an adult, people should stay half a meter apart and everyone should be aged 2 and over Years should wear masks.

She said visits should be limited to 30 minutes, no one should eat or drink in a playground, and everyone should sanitize their hands before and after visiting a playground.

“Our playgrounds are no excuse for you to hang out with a number of other families,” said Breed.

Last Thursday, Breed issued a statement of regret after it was reported that she had dinner with seven others at the French laundry with seven others in early November, the day after Governor Gavin Newsom made an infamous visit to the posh Napa Valley restaurant.

“The urgency of our public health message at this moment has never been so dire and my actions have distracted from it,” she said.

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CBS San Francisco Staff Report

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — With a surge in coronavirus cases, the information you need to know is coming fast and furious. Here’s a roundup of the COVID stories we’ve published over the last 24 hours.

READ MORE: COVID: Small Crowds In San Jose Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day 1 Year After Shelter-In-Place – ‘A Glimmer Of Hope’

California Shatters Daily Record For New COVID Cases, Deaths
California is seeing the worst days of the coronavirus pandemic, reporting more than 53,000 new cases and 293 deaths on Wednesday, both new daily records while hospitals struggle to absorb a surge in patients. The state has seen coronavirus cases and hospitalizations soar in recent weeks. Hospitals are filling up so fast that officials are rolling out mobile field facilities and scrambling to hire doctors and nurses, while the state is distributing 5,000 body bags mostly to the hard-hit Los Angeles and San Diego areas and has 60 refrigerated trailers standing by as makeshift morgues. Read More

Solano Health Officer Worries Order Won’t Slow Spread, Some ‘Aren’t Going To Be Persuaded’
FAIRFIELD — As all Bay Area counties are set to enter a stay-at-home order due to ICU capacity dropping below 15%, Solano County’s health officer worries the latest order will not stop the surge in COVID-19 cases. In Solano County, ICU capacity has dropped to 13%. Public Health Officer Dr. Bela Matyas said the surge in cases and hospitalizations can be directly linked to Thanksgiving and he doubts people will change their ways for Christmas. “I think this is going to be a really, really tough holiday season. It really will be,” Matyas told KPIX 5 on Wednesday. Matyas is basing his belief over what has happened over the last week and a half. The health officer said 13 deaths can be traced back to holiday get-togethers. “Family members are dying because of having attended Thanksgiving events that were not run properly,” says Matyas. Read More

San Mateo County To Join Stay-At-Home Order Amid Record Cases, Rising Hospitalizations
SAN MATEO COUNTY — As hospitals strain under surging COVID-19 cases, San Mateo County officials on Wednesday urged people to stay home for the holidays. The county’s Deputy Chief of Health Srija Srinivasan and County Manager Mike Callagy said during a media briefing that the county’s COVID-19 numbers were extremely concerning. “We haven’t been able to mitigate the increase that began around the Thanksgiving holiday time,” Srinivasan said. “The strains on hospital capacity are too real.” San Mateo County’s COVID-19 numbers and hospitalizations have been on the rise since early November, according to state and county data. The county has seen record-high case numbers in December. In the last week, the county had 2,602 new lab-confirmed cases for a daily average of 372 cases, the highest for any seven-day period. Read More

Ultracold Freezers For Pfizer Shot Arrive In San Mateo County With Distribution Set To Begin
SAN MATEO — Two sub-zero freezers slated to store thousands of doses of the Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19 have arrived in San Mateo County, county officials said Wednesday. The freezers at San Mateo Medical Center will store allotments for the county’s health department and for Seton Medical Center, and vaccines for other acute hospitals will be shipped directly to the respective hospitals. “These freezers are a really big deal only when we look at the Pfizer vaccine because it needs to be stored at -70 degrees while the Moderna vaccine just needs to be freezing,” Dr. Anand Chabra, county COVID-19 mass vaccination section chief and Family Health Services medical director, said. “Because of its formulation, in order to be viable it needs to be stored this way and the other thing is that there are no preservatives in there.” County hospitals may start vaccinations as early as Thursday, as the county has already received its first allotment of 5,850 Pfizer vaccines on Tuesday. Read More

Bay Area Post Offices See Crush Of Holiday Packages During Pandemic; Customers Report Delays
PLEASANT HILL — Along with the annual avalanche of Christmas packages, the US Postal Service faces new challenges in 2020, including there is the tidal wave of online shopping due to COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, not to mention the virus itself. “Well, we’re just like other employers that we have to be cognoscente of the fact that you may have a case and we do have those. There’s no denying that,” said USPS spokesperson Augie Ruiz. “It’s sporadic.” The USPS said they have had very few cases but when a case is discovered, it triggers mandated CDC guidelines; targeted sanitation, deep cleanings of work spaces and quarantine. All when there’s an historic workload during unprecedented times. Monica Thow noticed somethings was up with her mail. She checks it twice a day, sometimes more. Thow said her mail carrier was gone a couple days and no one was available to take his place “The talk is there’s been a lot of frustration,” she said. Read More

Bay Area ICU Capacity At Under 13%; Stay-At-Home Order To Go Into Effect For Entire Region
SAN FRANCISCO — According to the California COVID-19 website, Bay Area ICU capacity dipped below 13% Wednesday, triggering a stay-at-home order for the entire region starting Thursday night. Data on the state’s COVID-19 site showed that the Bay Area hospital region had dropped to 12.9% ICU capacity as of late Wednesday morning when the latest COVID case and ICU capacity figures were updated. Much of the Bay Area — Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties plus the city of Berkeley — already adopted the state’s stay-at-home order on December 7, well ahead of the region dropping below the 15% ICU capacity threshold set by Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this month. Read More

California Exodus? Growth Rate At Record Low As More People Leave
SAN FRANCISCO — More people are leaving California than moving here, continuing a trend that coupled with fewer births has slowed the growth rate in the nation’s most populous state to a record low amid a pandemic that is reshaping its future. Officially, California added 21,200 people from July 1, 2019, to July 1, 2020, increasing the state’s population a paltry 0.05% to 39.78 million people — still by far the most of any state. But the bigger news from Wednesday’s new population estimate was that 135,600 more people left the state than moved here. It’s only the 12th time since 1900 the state has had a net migration loss, and the third largest ever recorded. California became a state in 1850 after a gold rush spurred a massive migration of people moving west to seek their fortune. The state boomed again following World War II because of the aerospace and defense industry, and again in the 1980s and early 1990s as technology companies made Silicon Valley a household name. Read More

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‘Mental Health Issues At Crisis Level’ For Children During COVID Pandemic, Expert Warns
LOS ANGELES — Educators and therapists say the pandemic has created a serious mental health crisis for students. For nine months, Dr. Veronica Brown, principal of Manchester Avenue Elementary School in South L.A., has been unable to hug her students or even see them in person. “I thought about the kids,” Brown told CBS Los Angeles Tuesday. “I thought about, oh my goodness, who are they gonna turn to now? Because they turn to us for everything.” She says that over the past several months, she has seen more stress and pain in their lives “Sometimes, they’ll tell us that such-and-such passed away, and then there’s that moment where we say, ‘oh my goodness, let’s give him a big hug everybody,’” Brown said. Read More

San Jose Places Caps On Food Delivery Service Fees
SAN JOSE — Santa Clara County and the South Bay’s largest city, San Jose, both approved caps on food delivery service fees Tuesday in an effort to protect struggling small businesses in the wake of COVID-19. The county’s temporary ordinance caps delivery fees for third-party delivery services, like Uber Eats or DoorDash, at 15 percent of the purchase price for orders and at 10 percent for pickup/takeout orders from any restaurant. The emergency regulation goes into effect on Saturday and expires once restaurants can resume indoor operations or at the county’s discretion. “The current pandemic unfortunately creates opportunity for price gouging,” Supervisor Joe Simitian said. “That’s the problem we’re tackling.” Since restaurants were required to close both indoor and outdoor operations earlier this month, they have had to rely on pickup and delivery orders to sustain themselves into the next year. Read More

Google Glitch, Snowstorm Create Woes for Virtual Learners
MOUNTAIN VIEW — Snowstorms and technical malfunctions are still delaying school days, even when all the students are online. Students in the Northeast might be giddily anticipating a storm that the National Weather Service says could drop a foot or more of snow across the region Wednesday and Thursday. The glitch that came Monday, though, wasn’t in the forecast. “Google is down across the globe, which is the COVID version of a snow day,” Superintendent Joe Clark tweeted to followers from his Nordonia Hills City School District in northern Ohio. “Until it’s back up, Nordonia students, read some books, play outside, and help your parents around the house.” All-virtual learning — in use by many U.S. schools this holiday season to help curb the spread of the coronavirus — has some districts talking about not needing snow days anymore, even after students return to school in person. If there’s inclement weather, they argue, students can simply log on from home. That is, if the technology holds. Read More

CoCo Supes Ask State to Prioritize Teachers for Vaccines
MARTINEZ — The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors formally asked the state this week to consider teachers as “essential workers” and thus among the first people to receive COVID-19 vaccinations. In its request to Gov. Gavin Newsom and state health officials, the board stated that vaccinating teachers and all other school personnel at public, private and any other schools, the supervisors said, will better prepare them for reopening schools as early as possible. “We’re taking the initiative here … to convey to the state, as it develops its vaccine priorities, that we want all school personnel to be prioritized as essential workers,” Supervisor John Gioia said Tuesday. Distance learning, he said, is not necessarily effective, especially in communities of color, and reopening schools as soon as it’s safe is important. Supervisor Diane Burgis noted the board is only making its stance clear, and has no power to give school workers vaccine priority. She also stressed the county doesn’t have the authority to reopen schools — that is up to each individual district, and influenced by the health orders in each county. Read More

Other trending Bay Area COVID stories

Marin County Runs Out Of ICU Beds; ‘Transmission Is Accelerating Exponentially’
SAN RAFAEL — With new COVID cases and hospitalizations continuing to soar, Marin has become the first Bay Area county to reach its maximum ICU capacity. On Tuesday, county health officials reported that all their fully staffed intensive care beds at Marin’s three hospitals were now in use. Of those being treated, 12 of the county’s 29 beds are occupied by COVID patients. “We know that community transmission is accelerating exponentially,” Dr. Matt Willis told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. “Our hospitals are at or near full capacity, and case rates in Marin are four times higher than one month ago.” And that’s with the surge in new cases stemming back to the Thanksgiving holiday still accelerating. During his Tuesday COVID update, Gov. Gavin Newson reminded Californians that while the COVID vaccine rollout has begun, it will not directly impact the current surge in cases which is filling up hospital rooms, morgues and ICUs at an alarming rate. Read More

Coronavirus Grim Toll Soars; State Purchases Cache Of 5,000 Body Bags; Launches Emotional PSA
SAN FRANCISCO — While Gov. Gavin Newsom began his weekly COVID update on an upbeat note as health care workers began receiving the Pfizer vaccine, he ended with the grim death toll the pandemic continues to take all across California. Over the last 24 hours, 142 people have died of COVID complications in California. Over the last 14 days, the state has averaged 163 deaths a day. On November 14, that average was 41 a day. “Think about if we continue on the path we are (during the surge) what that January 14th number could look like,” Newsom said. In Santa Clara County, health officials reported 24 new deaths on Tuesday while Los Angeles County had 86 and San Diego County had 32 fatalities. Read More

Critical Care Doctor, Intensive Care Nurse First To Receive COVID-19 Vaccines At SF General Hospital
SAN FRANCISCO — A critical care doctor and an intensive care nurse received San Francisco’s first COVID-19 vaccination shots Tuesday as the initial allotment from Pfizer was being distributed and administered to front line health care workers at Bay Area hospitals. A batch of 2,000 doses of Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine arrived at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital on Monday. On Tuesday, Dr. Antonio Gomez and intensive care nurse Phung Nguyen were the first to receive the shots. “This is a historic day for our city and, we hope, the start of a turning point in our response to COVID-19,” said Breed. “This has been a really tough year, and this is good news for our city and for the fight against COVID. It gives us some much-needed hope during an otherwise challenging and uncertain time.” Read More

MORE NEWS: COVID: San Francisco Looks At Spending $125M Surplus On Businesses, Residents Struggling In Pandemic

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Debuts ‘Holiday In The Park’ Drive-Thru Experience
VALLEJO — What used to be a walk-thru holiday experience is now a drive-thru one. For the first time ever, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom redesigned “Holiday in the Park” to entertain people from their cars. It is the only such event in a Northern California theme park. The 20-minute ride features festive displays and more than a million lights choreographed to music, along a mile-long stretch. “It was really cool that they’re adapting to COVID, so that we can drive through and still enjoy the lights,” said Mckenzie Salinas of Rohnert Park. Solano County, where the park is located, is one of the few Bay Area counties that does not yet have a stay-at-home order. “It’s really nice, I like that I can get out and do something rather than be stuck inside,” said Sam Aparicio of Walnut Creek. “They had all the people waving and stuff like that it was really neat.” Read More

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That’s “in just 17 days,” said Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax on Wednesday. “And that’s when things don’t get worse, but they are very good at it.”

There are 123 Covid-19 patients in San Francisco, a number higher than ever and “showing no signs of decline”, according to Colfax. 30 of these patients are in intensive care units.

“This number is increasing and increasing rapidly. Now not just by day, but also by hour.”

The city is experiencing by far the worst surge ever, Colfax said, adding the virus is “currently all over our city”.

“And in so many parts of the city that it has never found a foothold in,” said Colfax. “Even lower-risk activities are now at significant risk as there are more viruses than ever before.”

And the upswing was also fueled by the gatherings held during the Thanksgiving holiday. At least 167 people have tested positive for the virus every day since then, and the average fall rate per 100,000 has skyrocketed since Thanksgiving week – from 15 to 30.

“Unfortunately, the reality turns out to be as harsh as expected,” said Colfax.

Last week, Governor Gavin Newsom announced a strict regional stay-at-home order to go into effect 48 hours after the ICU capacity drops below 15% in any of the five regions the state is divided into: Northern California, Bay Area, Greater Sacramento, San Joaquin Valley, and Southern California.However, several governments in the Bay Area decided not to wait for this threshold and implemented the order – including San Francisco. The order went into effect on Sunday, San Francisco officials said, and is expected to remain in effect through Jan. 4. “We will pick them up once our hospital capacity is stable and case rates improve for 3 weeks,” officials said. The regulation does not allow gatherings with people outside a single household, restaurants can only operate take-out and delivery services, and some businesses, such as hair and nail salons, are forced to close.

“To be honest, we have a chance to reverse this serious increase and that chance is now,” Colfax said on Wednesday. “But the window narrows and closes quickly.”

CNN’s Cheri Mossburg contributed to this report.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – Napa, Solano and San Mateo counties should join the rest of the Bay Area starting Thursday at midnight.

According to California’s COVID-19 website, ICU capacity in the Bay Area fell below 13% on Wednesday, which triggered the order for a home across the region starting Thursday evening.

CONTINUE READING: Grammy Awards: Bay Area Man nominated for Album of the Year

Data on the state’s COVID-19 location showed the Bay Area hospital region had dropped to 12.9% ICU capacity late Wednesday morning when the latest COVID case and ICU capacity numbers were updated.

Bay Area drops below 15% ICU availability. The order for Stay At Home will start at the end of tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/ziMCvhphG8

– Wilson Walker (@WilsonKPIX) December 16, 2020

Much of the Bay Area – Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, and Santa Clara counties, and the city of Berkeley – passed the state residence ordinance on Dec. 7, well before the region fell below the 15% mark. ige intensive care unit fell capacity threshold set by Governor Gavin Newsom earlier this month.

However, Wednesday’s drop in capacity means that other areas that didn’t follow the stricter restrictions – counties Napa, San Mateo, Santa Cruz and Solano – would now be subject to stricter rules.

Health officials in Solano, San Mateo, and Napa counties made statements that they would implement the state-mandated regional stay-at-home order starting at 11:59 p.m. Thursday, December 17.

The stay at home order includes the following restrictions:

CONTINUE READING: Biden COVID Relief Plan Dollars help improve rescue for Oakland employees

• Closes private indoor and outdoor gatherings of any size
• Closes sector operations with the exception of the critical infrastructure and retail sectors
• Requires 100% masking and physical distancing
• Does not prohibit essential travel
• Closes all indoor and outdoor meals in restaurants (delivery and takeaway meals still available)

The order remains in effect for at least three weeks. The order can be canceled after three weeks if the planned intensive capacity of the region reaches or exceeds 15 percent.

“Solano County is experiencing alarming levels of COVID-19 transmission and our hospitalizations are increasing. Both are indicators that the ICU impact is not just local but regional,” said Dr. Bela T. Matyas in a press release.

“I’ve been calling for this action for two weeks, so I totally support the state’s decision to pull the trigger on the home order,” said David Canepa, chief of San Mateo County. “We are in the middle of the biggest health crisis in our history and it will take an incredible determination to recover. Our hospitals are now overwhelmed as COVID cases have risen dramatically in the past two weeks and more people have died. “

Currently, the Northern California Hospital Region is the only region that does not fall below this threshold. In this area, capacity in the intensive care unit is still just over 28%.

The state’s website reveals that there are currently a total of 47 California counties – roughly 98.3% of the state’s population – remaining under the Stay Home Mandate.

The California COVID-19 crisis reached a grim peak on Wednesday as the number of new cases and deaths continued to skyrocket.

Authorities reported 53,711 new coronavirus cases and 293 more deaths on Wednesday, setting new records. That brings the number of COVID-19 deaths in California to 21,481, according to the State Department of Public Health. The previous daily high for deaths was 225 on Saturday.

Marin County became the first county in the Bay Area to reach its maximum ICU capacity on Tuesday, according to health officials.

Officials reported that all fully occupied intensive care beds in Marin’s three hospitals were now in use. Of the beds treated, 12 of the district’s 29 beds are occupied by COVID patients.

MORE NEWS: Governor, health experts applaud Pres. Biden’s desire to expand vaccination efforts

The decline in intensive care capacity just occurred when the state began distributing the Pfizer COVID vaccine to hospitals across California so that frontline health workers can get their first dose of vaccine earlier this week.

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The Mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, and the Director of Public Health, Dr. Grant Colfax, were again optimistic this week at their weekly pandemic press conference, mainly focusing on the current vaccine distribution process. However, Colfax cautioned that it will be at least a week or two before we get a better picture of the impact of gatherings and vacation travel over Christmas and New Years.

As in the previous week, Dr. Colfax continues to report an apparent flattening of cases and hospital stays in the city, but insisted “we won’t know until mid-January” if there will be another spike because of the vacation. San Francisco currently has 35% capacity in intensive care units (ICUs) compared to just 5.9% in the Bay Area – and until the regional average rises above 15% capacity, the state-mandated home-stay order will become do not be raised.

Colfax made it clear that one reason San Francisco has increased hospital capacity may have to do with seasonal slumps in elective surgery.

Breed and Colfax discussed introducing vaccinations at Laguna Honda Hospital and elsewhere in town, and Breed got Dr. Joshua Adler from UCSF to discuss how the vaccines will be distributed there. Dr. Adler said UCSF now vaccinates 1,100 people a day, and they hope to increase that number in the coming weeks – with healthcare workers first for vaccination. He also said that manufacturers’ vaccine shipments have so far kept pace with the speed at which UCSF has been able to vaccinate people.

Dr. Colfax said the Department of Health has so far vaccinated about 6,000 people between Zuckerberg SF General Hospital, Laguna Honda and other locations in the city system. Vaccines were given Monday at Laguna Honda, where over 700 elderly and frail patients live, and the first round of dosing is expected to be completed for any residents who wish them by Wednesday.

Jasper Harris from Laguna Honda is alive after receiving his vaccine. Photo: SF Public Health Department

Breed shared a few photos of Laguna Honda residents who received their vaccination shots, including the one shown above by Jasper Harris. “He had to deal with isolation and separation [in this pandemic]”Saed Breed.” Thanks to the Laguna Honda staff, he is alive and well and can get the vaccine. “

While it can take months for widespread vaccinations to happen across the city and demand now far outweighs supply, Dr. Colfax: “We expect anyone who wants a vaccine to get one at some point, and we’re going to work together … to make that happen.”

Once the city completes Phase 1A of the distribution process, Phase 1B begins, with the state dictating which groups are next in line for vaccines. This stage is likely to include people over the age of 75, as well as educators and key frontline workers such as grocery store workers.

As of Tuesday, there were 24,564 cumulative, documented cases of COVID-19 in San Francisco, and 198 people have died – four more since Monday. The new daily case count was 156 today, but Colfax was discussing a daily average of just over 200, or about 27 new cases per day per 100,000 population. That’s an increase of 6 new cases per 100,000 in late October and 15 per day in late November, as shown in a graph Colfax shared last week.

See today’s full briefing below.

Previously: Colfax sounds happier as it delivers the final 2020 COVID update and discusses SF Outlook

Above: Medical staff at work in an intensive care unit in Houston, Texas, in early December. Photo by Go Nakamura / Getty Images

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