Virus rages as new rules challenge California city's mettle

LODI, Calif. (AP) — In San Joaquin County, part of California’s vast Central Valley that produces most of the country’s fruits and vegetables, the coronavirus is spreading like a weed and the hospitals are running out of beds for the sickest patients.

San Joaquin is part of a 12-county region that on Friday had nearly 97% of its intensive care unit beds filled, the highest rate anywhere in California. And with cases continuing at an unprecedented rate, the death toll inevitably will grow, too.

A new stay-at-home order was imposed this week but it’s anybody’s guess whether it will have the intended consequence of finally changing enough people’s behavior to slow infections as a vaccine is rolled out.

“It’s been frustrating,” said Chuck Davis, CEO of data science company Bayesiant that tracks virus numbers for the county. “It’s like we see the train coming down the track and we’re telling people, and some people listen and get off the track and other people get on the track and start dancing.”

The virus has found a foothold in Lodi, a city of 68,000 on the county's northern rim. The birthplace of A&W Root Beer, Lodi is surrounded by vineyards that rely on Latino farmworkers.

On School Street, the city's picturesque retail and restaurant hub, sycamore leaves as big as your hand littered the sidewalk. In normal times, volunteers clear the leaves. But that stopped during the pandemic, and the leaves piled up, a subtle reminder of how things have changed.

More stark reminders are at the local hospital, where a second intensive care unit was created to handle patients. A team of 17 nurses arrives Monday so the hospital can begin accepting patients from some of the county's six other hospitals, all of which are at 100% capacity or more in ICU...