California Lifts Regional Stay at Home Order for All Regions

January 25, 2021, 6:04 am 26.5k Views 47 Comments

Update by the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department

The California Department of Public Health issued guidance today lifting the Regional Stay at Home Order due to projected increasing ICU capacity. All California counties will return to the Blueprint for a Safer Economy and color-coded tiers. Santa Barbara County has returned to the Purple Tier and a Health Officer Order outlining the specific restrictions and allowances for Santa Barbara County businesses and residents will be issued. This Health Officer Order will take effect at 8 a.m. on January 26, 2020.

The Limited Stay at Home Order, which limits non-essential activities between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., expires with the Regional Stay At Home Order ending.

“We are pleased the Stay at Home Order has been lifted and that California as a whole is moving in the right direction with decreasing hospitalizations and case counts. Now more businesses will be able to open In Santa Barbara. This is so important for the health of our community. In reference to this virus however, we have more work to do. Our case rates remain high and our ICU capacity is still very low. Please stay the course. Avoid gatherings, wear your face covering, and stay 6 feet from those you do not live with. We are getting closer, but this is not yet over.” states Dr. Henning Ansorg, Public Health Officer for the County of Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara County will continue to restrict gatherings of any size at this time. All businesses in Santa Barbara County, which are open or will be reopening, must follow all State guidance for their industry and self-certify that they are ready to reopen through completing the Online Self-Attestation.

Some additional businesses, which may reopen outdoors with modifications in the purple tier include personal care services, restaurants, gyms and fitness centers, movie theaters, museums, and zoos and aquariums. For more information about changes in the purple tier, visit https://publichealthsbc.org/purple-tier/. 

By edhat staff

The State of California ended the Regional Stay at Home Order for all regions on Monday morning allowing more businesses to reopen.

However, the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department is able to keep the county in lockdown if they choose. As of Monday morning, the department stated they are currently reviewing this new guidance, and any changes to businesses permitted to open will be reflected in a local Health Officer Order and shared broadly.

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) stated all regions, including San Joaquin Valley, Bay Area, and Southern California that have limited intensive care unit (ICU) availability can reopen. Four-week ICU capacity projections for these three regions are above 15%, the threshold that allows regions to exit the order. The Sacramento Region exited the order on January 12 and the Northern California region never entered the order.

This action allows all counties statewide to return to the rules and framework of the Blueprint for a Safer Economy and color-coded tiers that indicate which activities and businesses are open based on local case rates and test positivity. The majority of the counties are in the strictest purple tier. Tier updates are provided weekly on Tuesdays and individual counties could choose to impose stricter rules.

“Californians heard the urgent message to stay home as much as possible and accepted that challenge to slow the surge and save lives,” said Dr. Tomás Aragón, CDPH director and state public health officer. “Together, we changed our activities knowing our short-term sacrifices would lead to longer-term gains. COVID-19 is still here and still deadly, so our work is not over, but it’s important to recognize our collective actions saved lives and we are turning a critical corner.” 

CDPH maintains that while there are positive signs the virus is spreading at a slower rate across the state, the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. They assert it is still critical that Californians continue to wear masks when they leave their homes, maintain physical distance of at least 6 feet, wash their hands frequently, avoid gatherings and mixing with other households, follow all state and local health department guidelines and get the vaccine when it’s their turn.

The state, in collaboration with local health departments and health care facilities statewide, took a long list of actions to support California’s hospitals and slow the surge in cases and hospitalizations.

  • The Regional Stay at Home Order urged Californians to stay home except for essential activities, which helped lower disease transmission levels and reduce burden on the hospital system.
  • California deployed more than 4,100 medical professionals to facilities across the state to ease the burden on frontline health care workers.
  • The state provided assistance within hospitals in the form of personal protective equipment, ventilators and help with oxygen supply.
  • California also helped hospitals expand their capacity by opening 16 alternate care sites, lower-acuity facilities where COVID-19 patients get a bridge from hospital to home as they are recovering.
  • Public health leaders implemented a statewide order to make it easier to transfer patients from over-crowded hospitals to those with more space and staff.
  • The administration of vaccines to health care workers has meant that fewer health care workers are falling ill to the virus, which helps keep staffing levels more stable.

“California is slowly starting to emerge from the most dangerous surge of this pandemic yet, which is the light at the end of the tunnel we’ve been hoping for,” said California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly. “Seven weeks ago, our hospitals and front-line medical workers were stretched to their limits, but Californians heard the urgent message to stay home when possible and our surge after the December holidays did not overwhelm the health care system to the degree we had feared.”

Nearly all the counties exiting the Regional Stay at Home Order today are in the Purple or widespread (most restrictive) tier. Services and activities, such as outdoor dining and personal services, may resume immediately with required modifications, subject to any additional restrictions required by local jurisdictions. See the county map to find the status of activities open in each county.

Because case rates remain high across most of the state, the state’s Hospital Surge Order remains in place to prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed. The Limited Stay at Home Order, which limits non-essential activities between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., expires with the Regional Stay At Home Order ending.

Edhat Staff

Written by Edhat Staff

What do you think?

0 Points

Comments

13 Comments deleted by Administrator

Leave a Review or Comment

47 Comments

  2. AHCHOO – that’s just liberal silliness you speak of…. 😉 haha! Of course it is ALL about Trump, now Biden, and how the liberals have manipulated the numbers so Biden could win an otherwise unwinnable election against the greatest and most beloved man in US history. Now that Biden “won,” the virus will disappear and all those families who lost loved ones will be reunited since it was all fake news. Yup, them’s the facts! If you want proof, just check YouTube!

    0

  5. There isn’t nearly enough room on this board to explain how this became political to the detrainment of all Americans. Here in CA a reporter with Bloomberg News asked Gov. Newsom: “Do you see the potential, as many others in the Party do, for a new progressive era and opportunity for additional progressive steps?”
    The governor admittedly gave a long-winded answer which culminated in, “yes,” admitting there is political opportunity born out of the pandemic. “There is opportunity for reimagining a progressive era as it pertains to capitalism,” Gov. Newsom said. “So yes, absolutely we see this as an opportunity to reshape the way we do business and how we govern.”

    0

  6. VOR – explain how the liberals manipulated the numbers and now that Biden is president, they’re allowing everything to open up again. THAT is what I don’t believe and was commenting about.
    Further and btw, we’re not “opening back up,” he simply ended the temporary stay at home order. We’re still in the purple tier. It’s hardly the free for all that so many conservatives are crying about all over social media.

    0

  7. SACJON I am honestly concerned about what the hell is going on here. LA is easing restrictions on how many bodies can be cremated per day b/c of the intense backlog. Just a day ago here Cottage Health “pleaded” with us to STAY HOME, now this? Another thing, many medical industry friends of mine have said consistently the PCR test is overamplified causing false positives now suddenly, they are reducing amplification which will in fact result in fewer positives. I am staying home regardless of the lifting of any order but if a person is being honest regardless of political BS they have to admit none of this is logical, sensical or straightforward which means there are or may be some lies in there. If so I want to know what those lies are.

    0

  9. Kind of scary/crazy that Newsome is keeping virus data secret so as to not “confuse or mislead us”.
    SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has from the start said his coronavirus policy decisions would be driven by data shared with the public to provide maximum transparency.
    But with the state starting to emerge from its worst surge, his administration won’t disclose key information that will help determine when his latest stay-at-home order is lifted.
    State health officials said they rely on a very complex set of measurements that would confuse and potentially mislead the public if they were made public.
    https://apnews.com/article/sacramento-california-coronavirus-pandemic-gavin-newsom-38bb44ea7cb39eab9f6f6c621daeaf10

    0

  10. ANDREA – nothing really changed, other than the official “stay at home order” and curfew were lifted, which no one was really following any way. We’re still deep in the purple zone with hundreds of new cases a day. I guarantee you Cottage is STILL pleading with us to stay home, it’s jut no longer state-mandated. I keep hearing about the PCR tests from people trying to spread conspiracies. It doesn’t matter. What matters is we still have a TON of new cases a day, people are still getting sick and now more are dying and it’s still spreading. Stay home unless you need to be out and keep wearing a mask. No one is lying about the severity of this virus, except well ….. most conservatives. But that’s a different story.

    0

  12. so now can we start the process of getting kids back to school – get teachers, school custodians, school bus drivers vaccinated, etc… so they can’t claim health risk of returning back to in classroom teaching – if parents do not want their kids to go back, then fine they can stay home an Zoom with any teachers who dig their heals in about not coming back – does CA realize that most of the country has had kids back in school for months with zero cases – we already have the worst schools in the country and are just making the hole bigger – is there not just ONE school principal that has common sense to stand up the School Board – any principal hiding behind his/her union as a scapegoat should be ashamed – how do you people sleep at nite – why are you not demanding to get your staff vaccinated so that you all can go back to work

    0

  13. SBLOCAL1967 – “most of the country has had kids back in school for months with zero cases” – do you even consider your outrageous claims before typing them? That is just outright wrong. There have been TONS of cases in schools all over the country, including some in our town. I know at least one school that has shut back down due to an outbreak and many others with cases of kids and staff testing positive. Why would you so blatantly lie?

    0

  15. Good. I’m tired of living under solitary confinement. Let’s open the restaurants and bars, for outdoor service. None of this ever caused the spike in cases, anyway. Just stupid people congregating indoors over Thanksgiving and Christmas, and people refusing to wear masks in the workplace, because of machismo or whatever.
    Newsom is going to be recalled. He badly bungled the COVID crisis, with his stupid overly-broad lockdowns, his French Laundry faux-pas, and sending his privileged brats to private school while the rest of us had to keep out public school students at home doing horrible Zoom classes.
    He deserves to be recalled. A Republican won’t succeed him. Someone more progressive will.
    Now, let’s get the vaccine show on the road. Trump, worst President ever, is out and BIden now owns it. He’d better not mess up and California needs to get its act together and get people immunized.
    People at Casa Dorinda were vaccinated weeks ago, when vaccines were supposed to be for medical personnel only. In case you don’t know of it, Casa Dorinda is a retirement home in Montecito where the pampered residents live in luxury and have their own kitchens.
    In the meantime, the folks at Friendship Manor, a converted student dorm now used for warehousing low-income seniors haven’t even been given any information on when a vaccine will be available for them.
    The vaccine is available for people with money and connections. This is supposed to be a progressive state, but it’s all about cronyism and a tale of two cities.

    0

  16. when I say cases I imply hospitalizations – going crazy because someone tested positive is part of the problem – the liberal media and government has completely politicized this virus to get everyone to be in fear mode – states run by conservatives knew better and kept kids in school – and guess what – nothing bad happened

    0

  17. SBLOCAL – nice backpeddle, cases means cases. Even if you really meant hospitalizations only, do you really think no one has been hospitalized or died from COVID in schools? Read the news. I did some work for you, I know it’s hard. “Going crazy?” When multiple people test positive in a classroom, how do you expect them to react? They shut it down. This thing spreads easily as you might not know. “Nothing bad happened?” My God man, have you ever read the news? Here, call up the families of these people to tell them they’re being “crazy” and “nothing bad happened:”
    https://www.11alive.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/cobb-county-school-board-under-fire-after-3-teacher-deaths/85-8a585a86-90e1-4228-985e-ae0834866c5d
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/09/10/coronavirus-teacher-deaths-fall/
    https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/2020/11/29/lynn-middle-school-teacher-sylvia-garcia-dies-covid-19-complications/6458658002/
    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/29/us/college-student-dies-covid.html
    Look, I get you hate liberals and you disagree with any safety precautions, but you’re just plain wrong. Schools are definitely more safe than a lot of places, but quit with the BS about “zero cases” and “nothing bad happened.”

    0

  18. Geez Sacjon. I get it. You r a teacher and like getting paid to stay at home. You can pull all of the gear mongering news u want to make u feel better. Fact is teachers have a higher risk of getting killed by the flu each season than Covid. What Covid is revealing at the people who like to suck off society and get free govt checks vs those who want to go back to work. Teacher unions suck. There are a lot of great teachers out there who resent the school administrators that call the shots. The same admin that are in the pockets of the unions.

    0

  19. SBLOCAL – no, you don’t get it. You can keep making up “facts” or changing the subject, but we all know you’re wrong. Plus, I’m NOT a teacher, I know plenty of them though. I work from home for one job and the other has been shut down since March due to Covid. It sucks, yeah, but making up your own facts and then switching gears to appear like you didn’t just get proven wrong once again doesn’t do anyone any good.

    0

  20. I’m not going to read it now but I’ll wager some of Sacs examples the teachers didn’t get covid from the school. Then there is the Children’s Hospital of Phil’s saying schools are “little islands of safety” and are a lower transmission risk than the greater community ( link below). Most importantly public schools, should be prioritizing the health and well being of the students above all else. Instead it’s the union demands. Do we have public schools for our kids or as means to provide employment for adults? Why did we allow our children, with no voice of their own, our societies most prized possession, to be de-prioritized so severely? .
    https://www.google.com/amp/s/whyy.org/articles/chop-doctors-endorse-return-to-in-person-school-in-philly-area/amp/

    0

  22. SBLocal–this is really infantile. As if you know who is on welfare–and by the way, lots of people have lost their jobs over the last year in case you haven’t noticed, you think they are all just lazy?
    Come on. And, no, I’m not on welfare, I’m still working, probably paid more in taxes last year than you earned.

    0

  23. Umm (awkwardly looking around)… I guess me? Am I not allowed to be disappointed when someone downvotes a quoted article in which our California leader flat out tell us they don’t trust us and won’t tell us what’s actually happening? I guess we have different views on what/who is an idiot…

    0

  24. Sacjon has been vocally supporting a plan to restart schools and kids sports since June! It’s an anonymous forum so you never really know of course but Sac has been adamantly pushing for a long time a safe return to school… and like me was wildly disappointed when the schools didn’t restart under their planned hybrid model in September. So your on the wrong track there…

    0

  25. Apparently Newsom discovered a magic “algorithm” in order to justify lifting the stay-at-home order. Is this the same magic algorithm that’s already been signed by over 1.2 million Californians? What’s even dumber is that Newsom is lifting the order just in time for the Lunar New Year. Get ready for the case rates to go back up.

    0

  27. For our non stop whining restaurants…..great news! You can open and serve outside now. Great timing too. You all can open tomorrow, when it’s a lovely 46 degrees outside. And Wednesday, make sure you’re open when we have that 100% chance of rain in the form of the atmospheric river……keep those outdoor heaters on, and give everyone a rain coat…..hope you’re all happy so we can have people spread cooties, again, and we’ll be told to close everything again for 7 weeks. I’m so tired of restaurants whining.

    0

  28. Great news! But, not sure it will change much. It’s not as if people were really even staying home. We went to Home Depot yesterday to get rain gutter repair materials and the whole shopping center was just as crowded as ever before. Farmer’s market, kids hanging out in groups, people lining up at restaurants, etc. Oh well, whatever it takes to get my kids closer to getting back in the classroom, I’ll take it!

    0

  29. SBLocal? Wow. Just wow. Texting on your phone as fast as your little fingers can. All the short cuts and little help from spell check. Are you one of those kids that Homeland Security recruited from high school theater departments that I read about 10 years ago? Or are one of the myriad of paid trolls – must be a cush job.

    0

  31. YA-YEETLE – our numbers have been going down for the past week. Still super high, but not in the 400s like a week ago. It’s still BAD out there, but the stay at home order was a short-term policy to try to combat the surge. No one really followed it, but somehow the numbers are still going down a little.

    0

  37. NONBIDENARY – the numbers are going down, it has nothing to do with Biden. What are you getting at? You think they pushed for more restrictions only because Trump was president? How does that even matter? I keep seeing people saying “oh it’s interesting” or “coincidental” that numbers are going down. What are you all getting at?

    0

  38. VOR: Regional shutdown began on Dec. 4, when our 7-day average case rate was 17.7. Two weeks later (12/18), the case rate was 47.3. Six weeks later (1/15), the case rate was 102.7. This will never make sense to science-deniers, like @ 10:28 PM, who probably also hates math because it’s racist.

    0

  39. Oh good I was wondering when the conspiracy theorists would show up and make some connection to national scientists doing this because of their hatred for Trump. CDPH stated they’re doing this based on projected numbers that hospitalizations and ICUs should stabilize in the next 4 weeks.

    0

  40. This just means that instead of having BOTH state and local level lockdown orders, we are back to just local orders that yahoos will still ignore because “they’re not laws” . Remember kids – it’s always way more important to be “right” than to be a good citizen & team player.

    0

  42. SBSBSB – well, only dangerous if maskless while indoors in close proximity with people outside their homes. We don’t need to be wearing masks while out walking along the beach or even the sidewalks, until you come close to someone else. When my family and I are at the beach, we don’t wear masks while we’re just hanging out. Nothing wrong with that. BUT…. any indoor place or even outdoor when close to others (eg, waiting in line for take out food) we wear masks.

    0

  44. Sac, only dangerous if maskless while indoors in close proximity with people outside their homes AND have contracted covid AND are asymptomatic/pre-symptomatic (because if they have symptoms they should be isolating at home).

    0

  47. Sac – Like thousands of other SB county parents, I’ve got a kid in pre-school right now. I’ve got friends and family who have kids in school (a couple at Hope school, a couple at Private school and a couple at Montecito Union)…so…you don’t know me but I’d certainly send my kids back to elementary school right now. High School and perhaps Junior High might be a different question…

    0

1,129 New Cases and 7 Deaths in Past Three Days

David Stephen Sorensen