Governor Gavin Newsom called for the home isolation of all 5.3 million California seniors in response to the COVID-19 pandemic during a press conference today, Sunday, March 15. The directive applies to everyone 65 and older, even those who work in the healthcare industry.
The State of California has additionally updated guidance for visitations of those living in senior care facilities to limit visitations to end-of-life situations. At the same briefing, Governor Newsom directed that all bars, nightclubs, wineries, brewpubs and the like be closed in the state of CA. As it relates to restaurants, he directed they reduce current occupancy by half and require social distancing.
Additional highlights from the press conference, included:
COVID-19 Numbers: Currently 335 people tested positive for COVID-19 in California, a 14% increase from prior day. There are now six people who have passed away.
Tests: California currently has 8,316 tests available. There are 19 labs now online in California. 2,665 tests have been conducted in California. The state's labs have been supplemented by hospitals and a private lab by Qwest (which will be ramping up with 2 more labs-increasing capacity by as much as 5500/day. California is increasing capacity on an hourly basis
Turnaround is two-three days for test results. If people have severe symptoms, they need to engage medical community directly. The goal is to get people with mild concerns and higher risk removed to prevent them from burdening medical system.
Verily Portal: California has advanced partnership with Verily (alphabet/Google) to allow people to go on portal, answer questions, be scored on likelihood to be tested, then be allowed opportunity to be tested at two sites (San Mateo and Santa Clara). Portal will go online tomorrow (Monday); then making reservations throughout next week. Expect these two pilots will significantly expand to other parts of the state. The state hopes the partnership will scale and be a national model to identify closest locations for mobile testing.
Hospital Beds: California has 74,000 hospital beds at 416 hospitals. The state has an additional surge capacity of 8,661 beds. Of the state's hospital beds, 11,500 are ICU beds. California has 7,587 ventilators in hospitals.
The state has been in detailed negotiations and we will be bringing online significant assets to increase surge capacity of the healthcare system. The administration have already identified large hospitals the state can bring online--at minimum 750 beds. As soon as they are secured in the next couple days, the administration will announce publicly.
California may have a system that includes 74k hospital beds, but not every community has adequate beds. The administration is looking at it from a regional basis.
Homelessness: Issue of homelessness is a top concern. The state is procuring hotels and motels to convert to appropriate sites. It has also procured an additional 450 trailers to house homeless individuals.
State Budget: Governor Newsom stated he is participating in a real-time conversation with the State Legislature about California's budget and will be making announcements within the next number of days or hours.
Schools: The Current number of schools already shut down is 51%. 80-85% of all kids are no longer going to school. 24 of 25 largest districts have already shut down.
On Tuesday, California will be putting out very detailed guidelines for those schools that remain open and those who have been closed. These protocols will be laid out in detailed terms, from a "bottom-up" standpoint.
Childcare: The state is working on guidance for childcare facilities; this will be coming out soon.
Home Evictions: New eviction protocols coming out tomorrow.