California’s Lt. Gov. Discusses COVID-19 Surge

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Tell me how severe and how strict this latest lockdown order is.

ELENI KOUNALAKIS, LT. GOV. OF CALIFORNIA: Well, first of all, you’re right. There is a surge nationally, and there is a surge in California as well. But we anticipated that the numbers would go up in the winter. The nature of the virus is such that, when people are in close quarters, it is far more likely to spread. So, we knew this was coming. And, of course, we have been concerned all along that it would be a very steep increase. And it has been. So, if you look at, just a month ago, our positivity rate of our testing was just over 3 percent. We’re now over 10 percent. The number of patients in our hospitals about a month ago was around 3,000. We’re now at 10,000. So this is a very steep increase. And, in fact, we’re not sure, but we think that, if there is a spike associated with Thanksgiving, those numbers are already likely to grow. So, what we have done is divide the state into five zones based on hospital capacity. We want to make sure that anybody who ends in the hospital and ends up in ICU is able to get the nursing care, able to get ventilators if they need them, able to get what they need. And so looking at those ICU numbers is now what’s driving turning the dimmer switch back and closing down some operations that had been open. And, again, what we’re looking at is getting through this, minimizing the fatalities, protecting our people, and, of course, looking forward to the spring, when we hope that vaccines are going to be widely available.

AMANPOUR: Well, just a quick one on the ICU beds. I understand there’s quite a low capacity right now, right, 12.5 percent? That’s not a huge number of beds available for COVID emergencies.

KOUNALAKIS: So, again, we have divided it up into five regions. We’re 40 million people in the state of California, so San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, San Joaquin County, Northern California, north of those places, and then Southern California. Depending on which of the five zones you’re in, hospital capacity varies. In two of those zones, in the San Joaquin Valley and in Southern California, there are fewer than 15 percent of hospital beds left. That’s why those two regions have been mandated to have the closures. The Bay Area has taken it upon themselves in several of the counties there to get in early. But that’s the threshold. And, again, because we haven’t figured in yet the impact of Thanksgiving gatherings, it may very well be that the other three remaining zones also need to go on lockdown.