Sonoma County will voluntarily enact the state's regional shelter-in-place order this weekend as coronavirus cases continue to rise.
Health officials made the announcement Thursday. Earlier this week, the Board of Supervisors backed the county's decision not to join six Bay Area jurisdictions in preemptively opting in to Gov. Gavin Newsom's strict health order.
"The numbers are telling us, but really mostly important the hospitals are telling us, it's time," Sonoma County Supervisor David Rabbitt told KCBS Radio's Patti Reising and Jeff Bell late Thursday.
The decision goes into effect Saturday at 12:01 a.m., leaving Napa, Santa Cruz, Solano and San Mateo as the only counties in the Bay Area region not joining the voluntary lockdown. Monterey County, included in the region as defined by the state, announced Wednesday they'd be opting in.
"If we didn't pull the trigger, the state would very soon," Rabbitt said. "In kind of talking to our hospitals, staffing has become an issue and just the sheer number of COVID-positive patients being admitted to the hospital is climbing. We wanted to make sure we stayed ahead of things."
It comes as California sees its deadliest day yet during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As of Thursday, ICU bed capacity in the Bay Area fell to 17.8%. The state's trigger point for enacting the mandatory regional stay-at-home order is 15%.
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