• It's official: The SF Bay Area locks down on Sunday, December 6
• Health officers in most of the San Francisco Bay Area on Friday issued new stay-at-home order as hospitals and ICU beds reach capacity
• "The dark winter we feared has arrived," Dr. Chris Farnitano from Contra Costa County
Late on Friday, news organizations are reporting that 6 separate San Francisco Bay Area jurisdictions — San Francisco, Santa Clara, Marin, Contra Costa and Alameda counties, plus the city of Berkeley — plan to enact a regional stay-at-home order that will go into effect on Sunday.
This follows Thursday's announcement by California Governor Gavin Newsom of region-based restrictions to go into effect around the state as ICU capacity fills up.
Excerpt from the SF Chronicle:
This preemptive measure in parts of the Bay Area will close outdoor and indoor dining, personal care services such as hair and nail salons, playgrounds, bars and wineries, movie theaters, museums and zoos. It will allow retail, grocery stores and other businesses to remain open but limit capacity at 20%. Restaurants can do takeout only.
The move means the participating Bay Area jurisdictions would be under the state order a couple weeks earlier than they would have been. The order will be in place until Jan. 4,
The Bay Area region is currently above the 15% intensive care unit hospital bed threshold that triggers the state-mandated stay-at-home order, with 25% of ICU beds available. But Santa Clara County is in particularly bad shape, with 17% of ICU beds available, according to county data. The six Bay Area jurisdictions are voluntarily moving forward with the regional order to help stifle the recent, steep rise in new coronavirus cases.
San Francisco has 26% of ICU beds available. Health officials say if the current trajectory of case increases continues, the city would start running out of ICU beds on Dec. 26. The number of COVID-19 patients in Bay Area ICUs hit a record high 263 on Thursday, surpassing the previous record of 261 on July 29.
More at the San Francisco Chronicle.