As California hospitals struggle with an influx of mounting Covid-19 cases, state officials imposed a new stay home order on more than 33 million people. The start date varies slightly based on county. Orders for Contra Costa, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties took effect Sunday, Dec. 6 at 10 p.m. In Alameda County, the stay-at-home order started Monday, Dec. 7 at 12:01 a.m. Marin County is last to join on Tuesday, Dec. 8 at noon.
San Francisco added 316 new COVID-19 cases on Monday morning, and over 540 between Saturday and Sunday, marking the biggest three-day jump in new cases the city has seen since the pandemic began.
The city’s cumulative case total rose by over 1,000 since Thursday, from 16,001 to 17,068 this morning, likely reflecting the expected spike in virus transmission from Thanksgiving gatherings and travel the week before. And hospitalizations continue to rise, with 117 confirmed and suspected COVID patients in San Francisco hospitals as of Saturday — 122 if you count patients transferred from other counties — nearing the midsummer peak of 130 during the last surge.
San Francisco’s case-positivity rate, while rising, is still at a 7-day average of 2.6%, well below the state’s percent-positivity of 9.7% as of last week. And on Saturday, California saw a record one-day total of new COVID cases with over 30,000.
All of this grim news comes as SF and four other Bay Area counties — Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, and Santa Clara counties — all entered a new phase of stay-at-home orders Sunday night. In addition to shuttering all indoor gyms and outdoor restaurants and bars, the order closes playgrounds, hair and nail salons, museums, and a variety of other activities, and sets a new 20% capacity limit for retail stores of all sizes. The shutdown comes in a week when holiday celebrations in the Bay Area would normally be in high gear, with office parties and house parties filling peoples’ calendars.
As a country, we are experiencing a third surge of COVID, whether you’re looking at cases ( positive test results), hospitalizations, or deaths:
