Monterey County officials take a wait-and-see approach to joining other Bay Area counties in imposing early stay-at-home orders.

The Monterey County Health Department is not immediately following several other Bay Area counties that announced today they are imposing stay-at-home orders beginning Sunday, ahead of the schedule announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom yesterday, Dec. 3, in an effort to quell the rapid rise of Covid-19 cases.

"Dr Edward Moreno, Monterey County health officer, is reviewing the state stay-at-home order and conferring with local and neighboring partners to determine whether state restrictions should also be implemented early in Monterey County to reduce the spread of Covid-19 and protect our hospital capacity," a statement released late this afternoon said.

Under Newsom's new order, the state is broken up into five regions. If any region falls below 15 percent ICU bed capacity, new restrictions are put in place for at least 21 days. Monterey County is in the Bay Area Region with 10 other counties in and around the San Francisco Bay Area. Newsom said the region could hit the 15 percent mark by mid to late December. Other regions could see the restrictions begin as early as this weekend.

That wasn't good enough for five Bay Area counties, which announced today they were jointly imposing their own stay-at-home order in the coming days to protect hospital capacities. San Francisco, Santa Clara and Contra Costa Counties announced they will begin the order Sunday night. Alameda County is beginning Monday and Marin County is beginning Tuesday.

“We cannot wait until after we have driven off the cliff to pull the emergency brake,” said Santa Clara County Health Officer Sara Cody in a joint press release.

Two more counties are expected to follow suit with imposing earlier restrictions, Santa Cruz County, which is included in the Bay Area Region, and San Benito County, which the state placed  in the San Joaquin Valley Region.

Monterey County's own Covid-19 hospitalization numbers are setting records. As of this morning, Dec. 4, there are 90 people in three hospitals, with 23 in ICUs, the highest ever since the start of the pandemic.

Also as of this morning 130 people have died in Monterey County due to the virus. Total cases are 15,991, up 226 since yesterday.

Doctors from local hospitals told the Monterey County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that the rising number of patients were stressing their capacity and they were expecting things to become worse in the weeks ahead.

The state's stay-at-home order is available here.