(Photo illustration by Fernando Zhiminaicela/Pixabay)

A new stay-at-home order went into effect in Bay Area counties late Sunday night and early Monday to try to limit the spread of COVID-19.

The order went into effect at 10 p.m. Sunday in Contra Costa, Santa Clara and San Francisco counties and at 12:01 a.m. in the city of Berkeley and the rest of Alameda County. Marin County will enact the order at noon Tuesday.

The six jurisdictions on Friday announced the regional order to require most non-essential businesses to close all indoor and outdoor operations. Temporary closures include outdoor dining, playgrounds, hair salons, museums, zoos, movie theaters, and wineries, breweries and bars.

Retail and shopping centers will have indoor operations permitted at 20 percent capacity and no eating or drinking in stores.

A statewide order announced Thursday will add such restrictions if a specified region in California had less than 15 percent availability in hospital intensive care units, a number already reached by the Southern California and San Joaquin Valley regions.

Health officials in the six jurisdictions decided to align with the state order, even though the ICU availability in the Bay Area was not yet below that number and was at 24.1 percent as of Sunday. The order does not extend to other counties in the region.

The restrictions will remain in effect through at least Jan. 4.

The state’s stay-at-home order can be accessed at https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/12.3.20-Stay-at-Home-Order-ICU-Scenario.pdf.

Dan McMenamin is the managing editor at Bay City News, directing daily news coverage of the 12-county greater Bay Area. He has worked for BCN since 2008 and has been managing editor since 2014 after previously serving as BCN’s San Francisco bureau reporter. A UC Davis graduate, he came to BCN after working for a newspaper and nonprofit in the Davis area. He handles staffing, including coaching of our interns, day-to-day coverage decisions and management of the newswire.