LOS ANGELES – California authorities sent a cellphone text alert Tuesday to two major regions of the nation’s most populous state to tell millions that the coronavirus is spreading rapidly and asking them to stay home except for essential activities.
The noon blast to the state-designated 11-county Southern California region and 12-county San Joaquin Valley region was sent by the state Office of Emergency Services.
The text also urged people to wear masks and physically distance.
Both regions came under increased restrictions this week after the capacity of hospital intensive care units dropped below 15%. The restrictions will remain in effect for at least three weeks.
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 15%, the emergency services office said.
Meanwhile, three counties northwest of Los Angeles are planning an attempt to separated themselves from the Southern California region.
RELATED: Ventura County may ask Newsom to split from SoCal region and create a new Central Coast region
Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties plan to seek approval to create a smaller Central Coast region if the tri-county ICU capacity exceeds 15% in the next three weeks, the counties said in a statement Monday.
At that point, the three counties will ask to be assessed on the tri-county ICU capacity and not overall Southern California region capacity.
“We believe it’s reasonable to have the Central Coast as one region instead of including our county with over half the state’s population in the current Southern California Region,” Ventura County Executive Officer Mike Powers said in a statement.
Last week, amid a huge surge of COVID-19 cases, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom divided the state into five regions to use intensive care unit capacity in each region as a trigger for widespread closures, setting a 15% threshold that occurred during the weekend.
Source: California uses text alert to ask millions of residents to stay home
Ericson Report 