Regional Stay At Home Order in Place For Ventura County

Ventura County is in the Southern California region for the Regional Stay At Home Order, which also includes Imperial, Inyo, Los Angeles, Mono, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura. For updates on current capacity, visit https://covid19.ca.gov/stay-home-except-for-essential-need

The Region's ICU availability number fell below the 15% (to 13.1%) late Friday, which triggers the Regional Stay At Home Order to go into effect 24 hours from December 5 at 1:00 PM (Sunday, December 6 at 1:00 PM)

What does the Regional Stay At Home Order do?
The Regional Stay Home Order would be in effect for 3 weeks after the trigger and instructs Californians to stay at home as much as possible to limit the mixing with other households that can lead to COVID-19 spread. It allows access to (and travel for) critical services and allows outdoor activities to preserve Californians’ physical and mental health. This limited closure will help stop the surge and prevent overwhelming regional ICU capacity. 
In any region that triggers a Regional Stay Home Order because it drops below 15% ICU capacity, the following sectors must close: 

• Indoor and outdoor playgrounds
• Indoor recreational facilities
• Hair salons and barbershops
• Personal care services
• Museums, zoos, and aquariums
• Movie theaters
• Wineries
• Bars, breweries, and distilleries
• Family entertainment centers
• Cardrooms and satellite wagering
• Limited services
• Live audience sports
• Amusement parks

The following sectors will have additional modifications in addition to 100% masking and physical distancing:

• Outdoor recreational facilities: Allow outdoor operation only without any food, drink or alcohol sales. Additionally, overnight stays at campgrounds will not be permitted.
• Retail: Allow indoor operation at 20% capacity with entrance metering and no eating or drinking in the stores. Additionally, special hours should be instituted for seniors and others with chronic conditions or compromised immune systems. 
• Shopping centers: Allow indoor operation at 20% capacity with entrance metering and no eating or drinking in the stores. Additionally, special hours should be instituted for seniors and others with chronic conditions or compromised immune systems.
• Hotels and lodging: Allow to open for critical infrastructure support only.
• Restaurants: Allow only for take-out, pick-up, or delivery.
• Offices: Allow remote only except for critical infrastructure sectors where remote working is not possible. 
• Places of worship and political expression: Allow outdoor services only.
• Entertainment production including professional sports: Allow operation without live audiences. Additionally, testing protocol and “bubbles” are highly encouraged.

The following sectors are allowed to remain open when a remote option is not possible with appropriate infectious disease preventative measures including 100% masking and physical distancing:

• Critical infrastructure 
• Schools
• Non-urgent medical and dental care
• Child care and pre-K

How does the State Regional Stay At Home Order impact schools?
The Order does not modify existing state guidance regarding K-12 schools.
Schools that are currently open are able to continue to provide in-person instruction on school sites. 

• Schools that are currently operating under an elementary school waiver are able to continue to provide instruction to students on school sites.
• Schools that reopened while their county was in a less restrictive tier are able to continue to provide instruction to students on school sites.
• All schools that have not yet reopened for in-person instruction are able to continue to serve small cohorts of students (e.g., students with disabilities) following CDPH Guidance.

Schools are still required to follow the Schools Guidance issued by CDPH which outlines requirements for safe conditions, testing and tracing. Schools may be required to close if certain percentages of staff and students are diagnosed with COVID-19. All existing guidance applicable to schools can be found on the CDPH website.
 
​How is the available ICU capacity calculated?
Hospitals are required to submit information on the total number of available staffed ICU beds daily. This includes both existing staffed ICU beds and staffed ICU surge beds. To calculate regional ICU capacity the total number of adult ICU beds is calculated by removing neonatal ICU beds (NICU) and pediatric intensive care unit beds (PICU) as well as standardizing current adult ICU capacity. Consistent with the goal of the Regional Stay-at-Home Order, this calculation ensures that sufficient ICU bed capacity is available for COVID and non-COVID related conditions.   
As of December 4, 2020 the ICU capacity is calculated as described above.