Riverside County Shutdown Underway

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — Riverside County and the rest of Southern California is now under sweeping new health restrictions due to the rapidly increasing number of hospitalizations from the coronavirus, state officials confirmed.

A state-mandated "regional stay-at-home" order went into effect at 11:59 p.m. Sunday, triggered when intensive-care unit bed availability remained below 15 percent after Saturday's daily update, according to the California Department of Public Health.

The 11-county Southern California region's available ICU capacity was 12.5 percent Saturday, a decrease from 13.1 percent the day before.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that the Southern California region could meet that trigger within days. The Southern California region consists of Riverside, Orange, Los Angeles, San Diego, Imperial, Inyo, Mono, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

The stay-at-home order will be in place for three weeks and will bar gatherings of people from different households. Regions will be eligible to exit from the order on Dec. 28 if ICU capacity projections for the following month are above or equal to 15 percent.

Under the order, the following businesses/recreational facilities are forced to close:
-- indoor and outdoor playgrounds;
-- indoor recreational facilities;
-- hair salons and barbershops;
-- personal care services;
-- museums, zoos, and aquariums;
-- movie theaters;
-- wineries;
-- bars, breweries and distilleries;
-- family entertainment centers;
-- cardrooms and satellite wagering;
-- limited services;
-- live audience sports; and
-- amusement parks.

Schools with waivers will be allowed to remain open, along with "critical infrastructure" and retail stores, which will be limited to 20 percent of capacity. Restaurants will be restricted to takeout and delivery service only. Hotels would be allowed to open "for critical infrastructure support only," while churches would be restricted to outdoor only services. Entertainment production — including professional sports — would be allowed to continue without live audiences.

Some of those restrictions are already in effect in select counties.

California has grouped its counties into five regions: The Bay Area, the Greater Sacramento Region, Northern California, the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.

The San Joaquin Valley will also enter the new shutdown protocol Sunday night, as its ICU capacity dropped to 8.6 percent on Saturday.

Riverside County reported a record number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 for the sixth consecutive day Friday, along with 1,148 newly confirmed cases and 15 additional deaths.

The total number of infections recorded countywide since the public health documentation period began in early March was 87,945 on Friday, compared to 86,797 Thursday, according to the Riverside University Health System.

Riverside County does not release update COVID-19 statistics on the weekend.
Officials said the number of deaths stemming from complications related to COVID-19 stands at 1,472 as of Friday.

The number of COVID-19-positive hospitalizations countywide increased by nine, up to 658 on Friday, compared to 649 on Thursday, including 135 intensive care unit patients — 11 more than a day earlier.

"We have seen cases and other metrics rising for the past month and it is expected to get even worse this month," said Riverside County Department of Public Health Director Kim Saruwatari in a statement. "We must practice social distancing and wear masks to preserve valuable space and staff in our hospital system. These resources are already stretched thin."