The regional stay-at-home order was extended for what’s expected to be at least another three weeks Tuesday after the Southern California region’s intensive care units’ available capacity remained at 0.0% and Los Angeles County exceeded 7,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations.
The order was extended and will continue to be extended as the region remains under the state’s 15% threshold, Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency, announced during a press conference Tuesday.
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health officials reported 7,181 people with COVID-19 were hospitalized as of Tuesday, an increase of 267 since Monday.
“The northern part of the state still has availability,” said Ghaly. “It’s a different story for Southern California, however. Hospitals are running out of staff, they’re having to use rooms that are normally used for other things and there’s very long waiting periods.”
The region fell below the 15% threshold on Dec. 5, triggering the three-week order that went into effect the next day. Southern California’s ICU capacity fell to 0.0% on Dec. 17 and has remained there since.
Ghaly said four-week projections are made to predict where each region will be and if the stay-at-home orders are expected to be released or extended.
Projections are made on a daily basis, Ghaly said, and are based on:
- Current ICU capacity.
- Current seven-day average case rate.
- Current transmission rate.
- Current rate of ICU admission.
Ghaly said the order is not set for a minimum of three weeks — if a region under the order reports ICU capacity over 15% at any time within the order, the order could be released before the three-week mark, if capacity is projected to remain above 15% for at least the following four weeks. However, Ghaly added projections for Southern California show the order will most likely stay in effect for the next three weeks.
Public Health officials also released the following updated COVID-19 statistics Tuesday:
ICU capacity for Southern California: 0.0%
New COVID-19 cases reported in L.A. County in the past 24 hours: 12,979
Total COVID-19 cases in L.A. County: 746,089
New deaths related to COVID-19 reported: 227, with the high number of new deaths reflecting a backlog associated with the Spectrum service outage and holiday weekend delays.
Total COVID-19 deaths in L.A. County: 9,782
Hospitalizations countywide: 7,181; 20% of whom are in the ICU
Hospitalizations at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital as of Dec. 29: 95, with 662 discharged since the onset of the pandemic.
COVID-19 cases reported in the Santa Clarita Valley in the past 48 hours: 252, 203 of which came from the city of Santa Clarita.
Total COVID-19 cases in the SCV: 16,330
Total COVID-19 deaths in the SCV: 116, including one from Henry Mayo reported Tuesday.
The numbers of SCV cases, including all area health care providers’ daily figures and those at Pitchess Detention Center, broken down into region, are as follows:
City of Santa Clarita: 11,485
Unincorporated – Acton: 259
Unincorporated – Agua Dulce: 128
Unincorporated – Bouquet Canyon: 24
Unincorporated – Canyon Country: 480
Unincorporated – Castaic: 2,890 (majority of Castaic cases come from Pitchess Detention Center, exact number unavailable)
Unincorporated – Lake Hughes: 21
Unincorporated – Newhall: 53
Unincorporated – Placerita Canyon: 0
Unincorporated – San Francisquito Canyon/Bouquet Canyon: 6
Unincorporated – Sand Canyon: 9
Unincorporated – Saugus: 82
Unincorporated – Saugus/Canyon Country: 26
Unincorporated – Stevenson Ranch: 594
Unincorporated – Val Verde: 175
Unincorporated – Valencia: 98
To view all coronavirus-related stories, visit signalscv.com/category/news/coronavirus.
