California governor unveils plan for regional lockdowns as ICUs near capacity

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Dec 3 (Reuters) - California's governor announced plans to impose COVID-19 stay-at-home orders on a regional basis, with new restrictions on social and economic activities to be triggered in a given region when its hospital intensive care units get close to capacity.

The latest round of constraints, unveiled as coronavirus infections and hospitalizations continued to soar to record heights, will take effect after 48 hours in any of the designated five geographic regions when their ICU levels fall to 15% of capacity or less, Governor Gavin Newsom said.

The governor said he expects all areas of the state, except for the San Francisco Bay area, to reach their respective 15% thresholds by later this week. (Reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, Calif., and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; editing by Jonathan Oatis)