Will Santa Cruz County Adopt Stay-At-Home Order Early Too?

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, CA — Santa Cruz County Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel is considering joining several Bay Area health officers in an early adoption of a regional stay-at-home order — the strictest since this spring — to combat a surge in cases and hospitalizations for COVID-19.

The news came an hour after health officials with the counties of Santa Clara, Contra Costa, Alameda, San Francisco, and Marin, and the city of Berkeley announced plans to implement the stay-at-home order beginning Dec. 6 to 8, depending on the region.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday that shutdowns would happen when a region has less than 15 percent intensive care unit capacity in local hospitals, but those local health officers decided to act before we reached that point regionwide. State officials have estimated that the Bay Area would reach the 15 percent threshold in mid-to-late December.

There were six ICU beds available in Santa Cruz County Thursday, the most recent day for which statistics were readily available.

The stay-at-home order regions include the Bay Area, Greater Sacramento, Northern California, the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. The Bay Area region includes the nine-county Bay Area, plus Santa Cruz and Monterey counties.

Santa Cruz County leaders are "considering what additional measures may be necessary to protect the health and safety of local residents," said county spokesperson Jason Hoppin in an email.

"At this time, we have not reached any conclusions but are considering all options," he said.

The availability of open beds for patients will not be the county's primary consideration in deciding whether to adopt the stay-at-home order early.

"We're just a small drop in the Bay Area's much bigger bucket," he said.

Hoppin did not immediately respond to an inquiry seeking clarification about which factors Santa Cruz County officials were considering in their decision to potentially enact restrictions early.

Santa Clara County's Health Officer, Dr. Sara Cody, said during the news conference that her county slipped to 14 percent ICU capacity as of Friday. Other counties are ready to take overflow cases through mutual aid.

Cody said in a prepared statement, "We understand that the closures under the State order will have a profound impact on our local businesses. However, if we act quickly, we can both save lives and reduce the amount of time these restrictions have to stay in place, allowing businesses and activities to reopen sooner."

The stay-at-home order will last for a minimum of three weeks, at which time state public health officials will analyze ICU capacity projections for a month in advance before determining whether a county should no longer be subject to the stay-at-home order.

Even counties that currently have capacity are concerned.

"We are seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations here in Contra Costa County and across our region," said Contra Costa County Health Officer Dr. Christopher Farnitano. "The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in our county has doubled in just the past couple of weeks, and we are at risk of exceeding our hospital capacity later this month if current trends continue."

There have been a total of 4,750 COVID-19 cases reported in Santa Cruz County as of the latest statistics from Thursday, including 1,131 active cases. There have been 37 deaths linked to the coronavirus.

— Patch editor Bea Karnes contributed to this report