California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday he expects that he will extend his regional stay-at-home orders to ostensibly mitigate the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 in two large parts of the state as early as Tuesday while two other areas could also see lengthened restrictions.
The San Joaquin Valley and Southern California designated counties are experiencing full capacity for their hospital intensive care units and despite them being eligible for their restrictions to expire, likely will see them extended, Los Angeles ABC network affiliate KABC reported.
While the increase in the number of hospitalizations is beginning to decrease, Newsom said cell phone data and images of full airplanes makes him expect another spike in two weeks caused by people gathering for the Christmas holiday.
"That only suggests that we are going to see an increase in cases across this country, not just in the state of California, as it relates to these travel advisories that we're not heeded clearly by everybody," Newsom said.
Newsom added that state Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly likely would announce the extended restrictions on Tuesday.
Additionally, the Sacramento area could be placed under extended restrictions by the end of the week and while the initial San Francisco-Oakland area restrictive period was to end Jan. 8, it too could be extended.
So far, the Northern California region is the only area not under the most severe restrictions.
California’s statewide seven-day moving average of new cases has steadily dropped over the past week after hitting a peak of 44,782 on Dec. 21, according to worldometers.info.