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Health officers representing six Bay Area jurisdictions, including Santa Clara County, announce plans to implement the state’s regional stay-at-home order earlier than planned at a Dec. 4 virtual press conference. Video courtesy Contra Costa Television.
The spread of the COVID-19 virus has reached an alarming rate, prompting Bay Area health officers to implement the state’s new regional stay-at-home order early next week rather than wait until local hospitals are near crisis, they said during a press conference on Friday afternoon.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Thursday that all sectors other than retail and essential operations would be closed in regions of the state where less than 15% of intensive care unit beds are available under a new regional stay-at-home order.
Santa Clara County reached that metric on Friday, with 14% ICU bed capacity, Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody said. The average percentage of ICU beds filled with COVID-19 patients has tripled in the last month. Thursday brought a new record of 67 new patients admitted to the hospital with COVID-19, and each day breaks a previous record, she said. (On Friday, the county recorded 46 new COVID-19 patients.)
Health officers from Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, Marin counties and the city of Berkeley said they will enact the early order starting Dec. 6, 7 or 8 through Jan. 4 to try to reduce the stress on their hospital resources and staff.
The orders will become effective as follows: Santa Clara, San Francisco and Contra Costa counties, Sunday at 10 p.m.; city of Berkeley and Alameda County, Monday at 12:01 a.m.; and Marin County, Tuesday at noon. San Mateo County did not join the regional health officers in issuing the early order.
“We are in an especially dangerous period of the COVID-19 epidemic,” Contra Costa County Health Officer Dr. Christopher Farnitano said. “December will be the dark COVID winter we feared would come.”
He and the other health officers did not think they could wait. The current situation is an emergency, he added.
There is a surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in Contra Costa County and across the region, according to Farnitano. “The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in our county has doubled in just the past couple of weeks, and we are at risk of exceeding our hospital capacity later this month if current trends continue,” he said.
“It takes several weeks for new restrictions to slow rising hospitalizations and waiting until only 15% of a region’s ICU beds are available is just too late,” San Francisco Health Officer Dr. Tomás Aragon said. “Many heavily impacted parts of our region already have less than 15% of ICU beds available, and the time to act is now.” He added that there is no place to transfer patients with nearly three-quarters of all beds filled in the Bay Area.
Aragon said that every person who tests positive infects another one-and-a-half people. For every case they do detect, six to 10 cases go undetected. “This virus is relentless and unforgiving,” he said.
Dr. Lisa Hernandez, health officer for the city of Berkeley, urged the public to take the order seriously. People should not travel for the upcoming holidays, nor gather or meet with anyone outside of their own household, even outdoors.
“If you have a social bubble, it is now popped. Do not let this be the last holiday with your family,” she said.
The health officers said that they often work collaboratively and provide hospital and ICU beds when hospitals in another county are overwhelmed. They would do the same during the COVID-19 crisis, but they want to make sure they would have enough beds to serve their patients and handle any overload, if necessary.
“We cannot wait until after we have driven off the cliff to pull the emergency brake. We understand that the closures under the state order will have a profound impact on our local businesses. However, if we act quickly, we can both save lives and reduce the amount of time these restrictions have to stay in place, allowing businesses and activities to reopen sooner,” Cody said.
Alameda County Health Officer Dr. Nicholas Moss said the rising hospitalization rates across the region threaten not only community members with severe COVID-19, but anyone who may need care because of a heart attack, stroke, accident or other critical health need.
“By acting together now we will have the greatest impact on the surge and save more lives,” he said.
San Mateo County officials issued a statement on Friday afternoon supporting the other Bay Area health officials, but stopped short of issuing the restrictions.
“As other Bay Area Health officials today announced that they would impose new local stay-at-home orders, the County of San Mateo remains focused on following the state’s existing metrics and process, while reinforcing the public’s responsibility to comply with existing safety measures — especially avoiding gatherings — to slow the spread of COVID-19 during the holiday season.
“Accordingly, while the County understands and appreciates the measures taken by the other Bay Area counties, San Mateo will not at this time be issuing a new local stay-at-home order and will continue to work with business and community leaders on adherence to existing guidelines. San Mateo County remains in the purple Tier 1 on the state’s four-tier, color-coded system for restricting and loosening activities,” county officials said.
“We know our residents have sacrificed and patience is growing thin, but we need you to know that you have the power to curb the spread and preserve hospital capacity for those who will need care in the coming weeks. We can get through this together if each of us takes action now to social distance, wear face coverings and avoid gatherings,” County Manager Michael Callagy said in the statement.
The order follows the state’s restrictions under the regional stay-home order. Bars, wineries, personal services, hair salons and barbershops will be closed. Retail will also be limited to 20% of capacity; restaurants will be closed for indoor and outdoor dining but may have takeout and deliveries. Schools that have already opened for in-person instruction and critical infrastructure such as grocery stores and pharmacies will remain open.
Plans for Portola Valley School District sixth and seventh grades return to classrooms on Dec. 15 and 18 were put on pause, according to a Dec. 4 email from Superintendent Roberta Zarea. She said that the decision came after much deliberation “in light of recent public health data.” The students will now return to campus after winter break.
“As the state and local counties implement more restrictive measures than the previously outlined purple tier restrictions, we are slowing down our reopening plans so we can review, assess and adjust plans as needed,” she wrote. “I understand families’ strong feelings on both sides of the argument as to whether or not to send students back in-person right now. In the end, we believe making a judicious decision to modify the seventh and eighth graders’ 1.5-day return is the right thing to do based on new public health information.”
Students in transitional kindergarten through fifth grade will continue with in-person learning and sixth graders will return to campus as planned next week and the week of Dec. 14.
The Board of Trustees will discuss reopening plans at the Dec. 17 meeting.
Menlo Park City School District Superintendent Erik Burmeister emailed families Friday that the district’s internal case rate is low (the district has reported 17 cases since it reopened in September) and the school board is committed to keeping schools open “as long as risks can be sufficiently mitigated.”
Palo Alto Unified elementary schools will continue to serve students on campuses, the district said on Friday, following all guidelines from the Santa Clara County Public Health Department.
Plans to reopen the secondary schools for hybrid instruction in January, however, are officially on pause, meaning middle and high schoolers could approach a full year of remote learning.
“Despite extraordinary preparation efforts, it is now clear that our secondary schools will be prohibited from opening for hybrid instruction,” Superintendent Don Austin wrote in a Friday update. “We do not see a viable path for high schools to reopen for hybrid instruction in the second semester. Internally, we are exploring options to create a limited return at the middle school level with a target of March. All plans depend on public health conditions and evolving regulations.”
The district is “strongly” discouraging staff and families from recreational and nonessential travel. Students who travel more than 150 miles from the Santa Clara County boundaries are expected to self-quarantine for 14 days when they return, though teachers are not prohibited from returning to work after travel.
Schools may be required to close if certain percentages of staff and students are diagnosed with COVID-19. The district is continuing to post weekly updates of coronavirus cases online. Since August, there have been eight reported positive cases among students and staff.
The sector closures and restrictions on activity under the state’s regional stay-at-home order can be found here.
Change of plans: Research campus to leave Menlo Park, make way for more housingJune 12, 2026 6:46 pm
One last push for our autocratic overlords before they lose the convenient cover of the pandemic.
Honestly, this place deserves what’s coming for it when anyone with a semblance of self-esteem and love for their own life abandons it.
jgftw:
You’re welcome to leave if you hate this place so much.
None of this would be necessary or remotely justified if people would simply follow the protocols. They’ve been shown to work quite well in other countries. If you don’t want the “Autocratic overlords” telling you where you can and can’t go, put on a friggin mask! Or is that too difficult for you? I happen to know it’s not as I have to wear a mask all day long at work. If I can do it so can you.
“Most of us who have been doing the right thing”
The data clearly shows that not enough of us have been doing the “right thing” and the price of our collective failure is more infections and more deaths.
There are many countries that have done much better and the reason is better compliance with infection control behavior and much more extensive testing and contact tracing.
We have collectively allowed the situation to get so far out of control that truly draconian measures are the only way to prevent a collapse of our health care system ala Italy in the Spring.
Menlo Voter: Nobody said anything about masks, and this new lockdown order has no effect on mask policy. That’s a weak straw man.
But regardless, yes, I already have begun voting with my feet. I have property elsewhere, and I’m moving my company there as we speak. And like I said, many of the people I know who truly value their own lives—which means their freedom to act in accordance with their own judgment—have done so or are doing so as well. That freedom is responsible for every last ounce of the improvements in quality of life the world has seen in the last 200 years, and those who think such positive effects it will continue when severed from their roots are in for yet another repeat of authoritarian history.
And for what it’s worth, the “if people won’t do what I think is the right thing, I’m justified in forcing them to do it” is one of the most anti-American sentiments possible. This isn’t Europe. We don’t have overlords, period. You don’t get to decide whether I’m free, and neither does 51% of the country. The entire purpose of America’s political system was to systematically prevent such oppression, whether it’s from Kings or unlimited majority rule. Hence the profound innovation of *individual* rights. Nobody has a legal or moral right to imprison me until and unless they can demonstrate I’m initiating physical force against someone else. And yes, carrying an infectious disease counts, which is why there’s a valid role for the government to be testing and isolating *the sick*. But the notion that we can’t know who’s sick with perfect accuracy somehow justifies treating everyone like a criminal—guilty unless proven innocent—is not how America’s protection of individual rights works. The level of ignorance required to think that’s acceptable in this country is staggering, and 9 months into this if you still think that, as I said earlier: you deserve what’s coming when you remain in this dumpster fire of a state.
jgftw – Thank you for moving elsewhere. Your move is a win-win in that you will be happier and “freer” wherever you go and we will be safer here.
I would note that those states that have avoided stringent restrictions are now seeing horrible results – but they are “freer”.
Covid gives the slogan “Live Free or Die” new meaning – the “freer” you live the more likely you are to die.
1 – North Dakota 1,321 deaths per million population
2 – South Dakota 1,233 deaths per million population
3 – Iowa 845 deaths per million population
41 – California 502 deaths per million population
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/
It’s sad that this comment thread is full of straw man arguments and ad hominem, but not particularly surprising these days.
The choice American government has isn’t between evading the dangerous (to some) nature of COVID-19 by doing nothing, and indiscriminately locking down 40 million people without individualized cause. That’s a ridiculous false dichotomy, and anyone who can read and think for themselves can see I’m not advocating for either.
But yes, tell me more about how you’ve rationalized how freedom is deadly, nanny-states know best, and guilty until proven innocent is just.
Do you even hear yourselves? Are you aware that you’ve become so tribal, so anti-intellectual, and most alarmingly, so quick to defend coercive power against innocent people?
I would suggest getting out of your bubble a bit to discover that the people outraged at being treated like prisoners aren’t all Trump-worshipping conspiracy theorists.
Such a nice civil exchange of opinions… I guess this is what it comes to.
I think jgftw had a valid point. There is a curfew going into effect which would make sense if they did not consider Tesla Workers and entertainment people exempt and “Essential workers”. Please explain how making cars or TV Commercials/Shows/Movies is essential enough to warrant not following what we are told are necessary to slow the spread of Covid? There was a great video by a restaurant owner in LA who is being forced to close down her outdoor dining area even though she followed all the requirement. 50 feet from her restaurant they are filing a movie and have a canteen set up in tents (that would be considered indoor and not outdoor). How does that make sense? She is going out of business while the film crew ie exempt from the requirements.
It also does not make a lot of sense when the politicians pushing these requirements and saying how necessary they are ignore then. Just in the last week we found out that Gov. Newsom ignored the rules and dined in what was mostly an indoor venue at the French Laundry with 10 people who were not part of his household. I am sure he was sorry he did it, or at least that the public found out. The next night is was SF Mayor London Breed doing the same thing. Then at Thanksgiving SJ Mayor Sam Liccardo had dinner with people from 5 households indoors. How many more are there that did not get caught? Hypocrites, definitely. But they must not be worried if they are willing to flaunt their own rules.
Finally have you thought that if people are ignoring the common sense precautions like wearing a mask and social distancing they likely do not care about the curfew, stay-at-home orders, quarantining after traveling 150 miles and not gathering with anyone outside your own household? I follow those common sense precautions everytime I leave my home but I have no intention of self quarantining if I travel 150 miles (what is the difference if I drive to Tahoe, more than 150 miles, or Monterey which is less than 150 miles)? I will still see friends that I know follow the mask and distancing recommendations because humans need interaction and Zoom just does not cut it. They should be doing more to enforce masks and distancing instead of just creating arbitrary new requirements with many exemptions that most people probably will not follow.
Our public health professionals are simply applying increasingly restrictive rules because we, as a collective, are not obeying the simpler rules regarding masks, social distancing, and avoiding congregant settings – as is evidenced by the rising infection rates.
Other democratic countries have done much better than has the US primarily because we, as a collective, refuse to follow common sense procedures. The US has the 12th highest infection rate in the world out of 218 countries being monitored. Our infection rate is almost twice that of the UK, three times that of Denmark and Ireland, four times that of Canada, thirty five times that of Japan and Australia and ONE HUNDRED times that of New Zealand.
This is the same virus in all of these countries – the only difference is the behavior of the citizens of these nations.
Given our collective poor adherence to simple public health rules we now have a third wave of horrible proportions (more people dying every day than in the World Trade Center attack or in ten airliners crashing every day) and the public health professionals have NO choice but to require more draconian restrictions.
I’m not in denial about the science of this pandemic. The more people who stay at home and don’t work or play, the less it spreads. We can argue about death rates, and if they’re being accurately reported, but as for the last sentence, that much is true.
I think everyone would also agree, at the end of the day, on what is “essential” and what is not. Truly essential would be a very short list, with grocery stores, pharmacies, medical treatment, and perhaps not much else.
Where the government is getting into a lot of trouble is not understanding this country is based on equal treatment under the law. Half of Staten Island can’t be essential, while the other half is not. Tesla cannot be essential, while a small business is not. A lady with outdoor dining in LA can’t be told to shut down as non-essential, when a movie production outdoor dining is a stone’s throw away.
And, correct me if I’m wrong, Peter, but in the other countries you mention, I haven’t heard reports of their leadership flouting the regulations they have imposed on the public. In other words, as far as I know, the Queen is locked up in her castle and not going to their version of the French Laundry, unlike Gavin Newsom and London Breed, or the beauty salon like Nancy Pelosi.
I therefore put the blame with the politicians who are playing the “do as I say, not as I do” game, and not with the people who are incensed by that. In an ideal world, they would not take out their anger and disappointment by disobeying the guidelines, since that harms society and themselves, but that is the inevitable reaction.
These politicians should all be removed from office.
Peter: The US is not a collective. Our entire political system, as explicitly and clearly expressed in the Declaration and Constitution, is based on *individual* rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: inalienable rights that each of us have, subject to nothing more than our own respect of others’ rights. The government’s only legitimate role, as envisioned and expressed by the Founder’s of this country, is to protect those rights.
With respect to COVID, that means testing to identify those who present a threat to others, and isolating those who are shown to be sick. California and the federal government has utterly failed to do this but that doesn’t mean the right path is indiscriminate universal lockdowns constrained by nothing but our governors’s “discretion.” That is so far beyond the bounds of reason that it’s clear that anyone defending such reckless use of physical force is little more than a power lusting maniac. Your role with the Menlo Park Fire District is horrifying, in this respect. You clearly don’t value individual lives.
I don’t care if you choose to head down the self-destructive path of thinking of yourself as nothing but a cog of a greater whole. History makes very clear how foolish this is, but you’re free to sacrifice yourself if you wish. But there is absolutely, unequivocally, no case to be made for you have a legal right to force those genocidal views on other individuals in this country.
It is a strange and morally weak world where citizens blame their individual self destructive behavior on the shortcomings of their leaders.
Certainly better leadership and role modeling helps but in the end we are each responsible for our own behavior.
It is not like we don’t know what to do as individuals. There is zero doubt that wearing masks, social distancing, washing hands and avoiding congregant settings are effective in controlling this virus.
“Your role with the Menlo Park Fire District is horrifying, in this respect. You clearly don’t value individual lives.”
I have no role with the MPFPD.
You have no basis for claiming that I don’t value individual lives. Much of my life has been spent in the service of others.