SLO County will enter new COVID-19 stay-at-home order Sunday. Here’s what that means
San Luis Obispo County will enter into its second stay-at-home order due to decreasing intensive care unit bed capacity after COVID-19 infections rose in the Southern California region on Friday.
The order will go into affect Sunday at 11:59 p.m., according to the San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department.
“We are disappointed to be categorized in the Southern California region and continue to ask state officials to reconsider our regional assignment to better represent the local ICU capacity,” said Dr. Penny Borenstein, county health officer. “However, COVID-19 is spreading fast in SLO County, and in the past 14 days, 11 people with COVID-19 have died in our community.”
The order will remain in place for at least three weeks. After that, if the regional ICU bed capacity rises to 15% or higher, the stay-at-order will be lifted, according to the California Public Health Department.
The ICU bed capacity in the Southern California region fell to 12.5% on Saturday, State Public Health said.
This means 87.5% of ICU beds in the region — which includes Imperial, Inyo, Los Angeles, Mono, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties — were occupied as of Friday night.
What happens when SLO County is under the stay-at-home order?
Under the stay-at-home order, retail stores will be limited to 20% capacity inside. Businesses are expected to monitor the number of customers who can enter, Borenstein said.
Restaurants will be closed to indoor and outdoor dining and only allowed to offer takeout, pickup or delivery.
Bars, wineries and hair salons will be required to close as well. Churches and other places of worship will be allowed to hold services in outdoor settings only.
Schools that have already opened to in-person learning will not be required to close their doors. Schools that have not already reopened will not be allowed to bring student back on campus, unless they have been granted a waiver by the county Public Health Department.
Under the order, hotels and offices would be allowed to remain open for critical infrastructure support only, such as serving essential workers. Borenstein said the county is still seeking further definition of what constitutes “critical infrastructure.”
Medical and dental care offices, child care facilities and outdoor recreational facilities are allowed to remain open.
Borenstein acknowledged that community members may be discouraged to see the county reversing course on shutdown measures, but she highlighted forthcoming relief efforts at the state level, such as loans, grants and tax deferrals.
“More information is available on the state’s website, and we will try to post the same information on our website as well, as we get it sorted out,” Borenstein said at a COVID-19 news conference on Thursday.
SLO County coronavirus cases surged, but local hospitalizations remained low
San Luis Obispo County has seen more than 1,000 new coronavirus cases in the past two weeks.
A total of 6,540 San Luis Obispo County residents have tested positive for coronavirus since March, according to the county.
On Friday, four more people in the county died of COVID-19 — one person in their 50s who did not have any underlying medical conditions, one person in their 60s and two people in their 90s — bringing the county’s total to 42 deaths over the course of the pandemic.
Hospitalizations, however, remain low here. As of Friday, there were 13 coronavirus patients at local hospitals, with only one person in the ICU, according to EmergencySLO.org.
The county has a remaining 52 ICU beds and 356 hospital beds available. There is also additional hospital capacity at Cal Poly’s Recreation Center Alternate Care Site.
Stay-at-home order may help COVID-19 infections decrease dramatically
County officials hope the new measures will stop the wide spread of the virus and allow broad reopening when the order is lifted, including possibly jumping multiple tiers in one fell swoop.
At Thursday’s news conference, Borenstein said the new order could move San Luis Obispo County down to the least-restrictive yellow tier..
“If we get ourselves into that yellow tier in three weeks time and the stay-at-home order is lifted (after a minimum of three weeks), and we use that time to get our case load low, we’ll be able to move forward just as quickly as the state order has been lifted,” Borenstein said.
County administrative official Wade Horton said at Thursday’s news conference that though it’s frustrating San Luis Obispo County was grouped in with other Southern California counties that have limited ICU bed capacity, it’s important for local businesses to comply with state orders.
“If you’re a small business facing the question of going out of business or complying, it’s a very difficult position to be in,” Horton said. “However, we are a subdivision of the state. I don’t get to make these decisions. As a subdivision of the state, our area of the county is subjected to those rules. ... Our goal will be to educate and to try to obtain compliance.”
The stay-at-home order is an opportunity for the county to further recover from COVID-19 and decrease case numbers dramatically, Horton added.
“If we’re going to be locked down. Let’s make the best use of it, so when we do reopen, we can jump tiers,” Horton said. “This is a difficult situation to be in, but we need to pull together as a community. Shop locally, order online locally and let’s do what we can to support our businesses.”
This story was originally published December 5, 2020 at 12:52 PM.
CORRECTION: Update: This story was updated to show the latest regional ICU bed capacity on Saturday, which was 12.5%, according to the California Public Health Department.
