Newsom announces new stay-at-home order, impacting Merced, most California counties
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a new stay-home order Thursday that will impact Merced County most of the state — the latest attempt to slow a coronavirus surge in California that’s resulting in about 20,000 lab-confirmed cases everyday.
In Merced County and the rest of the San Joaquin Valley from Kern County in the south through San Joaquin County in the north, the measure would be triggered when hospitals across the region dip down to 15% or less of capacity in their intensive-care units.
When that happens, some services that have been allowed to be open in Merced County would face a closure of at least three weeks, including barber shops, hair salons and other personal-care services.
Retailers would be limited to 20% capacity for indoor operations, and restaurants would be limited to only take-out and delivery services, with no outdoor dining.
All playgrounds, indoor recreation, museums, zoos, aquariums, movie theaters, wineries, bars, casinos, live-audience sports and amusement parks must close in regions subject to the order.
Once a region falls under the intensive care unit threshold, it will have two days to comply with the order and must follow the new rules for at least three weeks.
For now, Merced-area restaurants are allowed to serve diners on patios under the purple tier of the coronavirus restrictions. But as soon as the region’s hospitals dip below 15% capacity in ICU beds, that will end.
The governor said earlier this week that “drastic” action could be considered in the face of key coronavirus trends getting worse across the state.
Newsom’s announcement comes amid hospitals running out of ICU beds in the Valley and statewide to treat the numerous people with COVID-19 infections.
Merced County is no exception to the surge of cases, reporting 185 deaths and 12,427 confirmed infections since the pandemic was first reported locally in March. New daily infections are now regularly tallying over the 100 case threshold.
As of Wednesday, officials at Merced County Department of Public Health said they only had seven ICU unit beds left.
The new changes represent even tighter restrictions on businesses in Merced and other counties under the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy.
Introduced in late August, the blueprint provides for a gradual county-by-county easing of limitations based on the level of risk for COVID-19 to spread in the community.
Merced, Stanislaus, Fresno, Kings, Madera and Tulare counties have all been in purple Tier 1, representing widespread risk of viral spread.
Under Tier 1, restaurants cannot offer indoor dining and are limited to outdoor dining, to-go and delivery orders. Similarly, churches, temples, mosques and other houses of worship cannot hold services indoors.
Other sectors required to operate only outdoors under purple Tier 1 have been movie theaters, museums and zoos, cultural ceremonies such as weddings and funerals, fitness clubs and dance studios, and wineries.
Other purple-tier limitations include retail stores open indoors at only 25% capacity, shopping malls open at 25% capacity with food courts closed, and grocery stores open at 50% capacity.
Fresno, Kings and Merced counties started in Tier 1 when the color-coded blueprint was launched in late August, but were able to advance into red Tier 2 for several weeks before falling back to purple amid a sharp rise in the rate of new cases arising daily. Madera and Tulare counties never made it out of Tier 1 before Thursday’s announcement.
The Fresno Bee and Modesto Bee contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 3, 2020 at 12:47 PM.
