California warns of rising virus cases, broad transmission
LOS ANGELES (AP) — California's top health official on Tuesday said coronavirus cases are expected to continue to climb in the state and that everyday activities now carry a much greater risk of infection.
Dr. Mark Ghaly, California's secretary of health and human services, said the roughly 23,000 new virus cases reported Tuesday include test results from over the weekend and that these tend to skew lower. He urged California's 40 million residents to stay home wherever possible and said he doesn't believe the state has reached a peak in the virus surge that began in October.
“The fact is that transmission is now so widespread across our state that most all non-essential activities create a serious risk for transmission,” Ghaly told reporters.
The warning comes as California authorities sent a cellphone text alert to millions of residents in two major regions of the state asking them to stay home except for essential activities. The blast — which also urged people to wear masks and physically distance — was sent to the state-designated 11-county Southern California region and 12-county San Joaquin Valley region by California's Office of Emergency Services.
Both regions came under increased restrictions this week after the capacity of hospital intensive care units dropped below 15%. The regions will be eligible to emerge from the order on Dec. 28 if ICU capacity projections for the following month are above or equal to that threshold, the emergency services office said.
Meanwhile, three counties northwest of Los Angeles said they plan to seek state approval to separate themselves from the Southern California region if their collective ICU capacity exceeds 15% in the next three weeks. At that point, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties said they would ask to be assessed on the tri-county ICU...
