Back to Stage 1 it is for California. And residents are not happy. More than 33 million people in California woke up Monday to new orders from the government not to leave their homes for at least the next three weeks except for essential purposes.
This obviously forces restaurants to offer take-out only while limiting retailers to 20% capacity as a surge of new coronavirus cases threatens to overwhelm hospitals.
The new regulations took effect just before midnight for Southern California and a large swath of the Central Valley, coming after more than 85% of beds in intensive care units were occupied in those regions.
Several San Francisco Bay Area counties also joined in on the rules, saying they didn’t want to wait until their capacity dropped too low to take action. Those restrictions will last until Jan. 4, a week longer than the state’s timeline.
We are hoping that this round of quarantine will ultimately help end the rise in cases and deaths. The country is truly gearing up for something we haven’t seen before.
