get through the next number of weeks, to get through the next few months. >> the next few months. it was a lengthy news conference today by the governor. the governor also issuing a travel advisory ahead of the christmas and hanukkah holidays here. he hopes people will cancel all nonessential travel. just stay home is the suggestion. >> nbc bay area's robert handa joins us from san jose, where public health leaders are echoing the governor's concerns. robert? >> reporter: well, we're here at the office of emergency management where just a short while ago, we were told at a public briefing the south bay isn't there quite yet, but it is getting very close. governor newsom is keeping an eye on icu capacity on a regional basis before triggering a stay-at-home order. but just about every hospital is already keeping a wary eye on its own icu beds. santa clara county already has some hospitals well over 90% icu capacity, and every hospital has submitted a surge plan on how to

make more room. >> so this would include bringing beds into service that normally aren't in service. it could perhaps include converting some non-clinical areas into clinical areas. >> reporter: the public health department says covid cases continue to surge. for example, in san jose, the amberwood gardens nursing care facility has had 151 positive cases. 81 residents and 70 among staff. and at a homeless shelter, the baccardo reception center, 60 cases in a little more than a week. >> when the amount of covid rises in our community, you're going to get more people landing in the icu, and you're going to get more outbreaks in congregate settings. >> reporter: officials say setting up outside surge facilities as they did at the start of the pandemic will be more difficult due to lack of staffing. >> nursing staff are stretched thin and are being deployed all over the country. so we are very concerned of the long-term staffing crunch.

>> reporter: well, for now hospitals continue to create icu space, including some postponing non-emergency surgeries. they say at this point it's a day to day strategy, and every day the situation seems to be getting worse. live in san jose, robert handa, nbc bay area news. >> robert, thank you. that's what we're talking about, converting those outside spaces and setting up those facilities. we spotted these tents going up outside the kaiser hospital in walnut creek. the hospital told us they will provide additional treatment space if needed. the state is also making emergency plans. it's preparing 11 locations for extra beds. three of those locations right here in the bay area. take a look. the san mateo county event center in san mateo will hold about 250 beds. you're looking here at the craneway pavilion in richmond that would also hold 250 beds. and then the smallest location is at fort mason in san francisco with 125 beds.

janelle. the first doses of the vaccine are just weeks away. california is expecting to get 327,000 doses of the pfizer vaccine. the governor says the first injections will come in mid-december. so who will be in line to get the vaccine first? the governor broke down the first group into three tiers today. the first tier will include patients in acute and psychiatric care, people in assisted living facilities, emergency response workers, and people at dialysis centers. the second tier would include in-home health care workers, community health care workers, public health staff, and primary care facilities. and then the third tier in this first wave, specialty clinics, lab workers, and dentists, pharmacy staff. but even among these tiers, the governor says those who need it most will be prioritized. the rest of californians will be months after that. now, vaccines can't be distributed until the fda approves them, and that approval could come in just a couple of weeks. tonight on a second edition of

"dateline," lester holt spoke with the heads of pfizer, moderna, and johnson & johnson. >> we are aiming hours after the approval to be able to distribute. >> once approval comes, how quickly does moderna spring into action and start shipping? >> we're partnered with operation warp speed. i've been told they want trucks rolling within hours if not a day. >> lester holt asks about what these companies went through to make sure no corners were cut when making and testing these vaccines. watch "dateline" tonight at 10:00 right here on next bay area. big news coming from the east bay. alameda county is warning that it may not wait for the state to trigger the new stay-at-home order. in an email sent out about 20 minutes ago, the county says in order to protect the icu bed availability and to save lives, alameda county may need to, quote, enact the state's

state-at-home restrictions before the bay area region meets the threshold. again, alameda county could go into that stay-at-home order before the state requires it. now, in every county, many restaurants have already closed down permanently. but for the ones still in business, this upcoming order would be crippling. nbc bay area's christie smith is in san francisco with the latest. >> it's been tough. >> reporter: ahmed's barber and hairstyling closed for six months this year during the pandemic. when they reopened in san francisco's financial district, not much changed. few workers returning to the office means fewer people coming in for haircuts, and now worried that he may be ordered to close again. >> if we shut down, i think we don't have any income. as it is, it's bad. but then will be worse. but for the people's safety, you know, for save some life, i don't mind. >> reporter: governor newsom estimated the bay area may be just weeks away from triggering that new order. if nothing changes and icu beds

continue to fill up. the advice to everyone is simple. >> this is time for us all to take the actions that we know slow the spread of this virus. please, i ask san franciscans, people in the region, do not travel for the holidays. please do not gather in groups outside of your immediate household. >> we did invest, you know, significant amount of money to improve with the heater lamp, the park lot, and buy new table and chair. >> reporter: in north beach at california fish market restaurant, francesco cavutti says they have built up for outdoor dining. now they have to figure out what to do if they can't even do that. >> we are considering maybe to be closed for maybe two or three months, what is called the new hibernation. >> reporter: while takeout may be an option for some, the bottom line, they would need help. >> we do need the government to

help us to survive. >> reporter: in san francisco, christie smith, nbc bay area news. we do have an update on what the government is doing. we'll talk about that in just a minute. there are just a lot of questions here about this new order. we have a full breakdown on our website. you can simply go to nbcbayarea.com/stayathome. stay with us. we're going to go more in depth about the new travel quarantine recommendation from the state. that's coming up in just a few minutes as well. fire season extending into december. firefighters in the bay area are preparing for the possibility of some dangerous conditions this weekend. tonight we have team coverage of what's to come. we're going to start with chief meteorologist jeff ranieri. jeff, we could see a red flag warning, which is really rare for december, but southern california already seeing that. >> you're exactly right. we could see fire warnings, fire watches issued for sunday night into monday morning. that's really the zone we're looking at for this fire weather and some mountain wind. we wanted to give you an early

uptick on what we're seeing happening. so as we get a look at what we're dealing with, what i see happening is this area of low pressure dropping down the interior part of california. the counterclockwise circulation around this sunday night into monday would then drive down these drier north and easterly winds over the bay area, primarily impacting the higher elevations and increasing that fire danger. also lowering that humidity. you can see at 10:00 p.m. on sunday, for the surface winds, anywhere from 10 to about 35 miles per hour. but really the best zone of some of this wind would be in the north bay. napa, 34-mile-per-hour winds. you can see some of that orange to red color. those are wind gusts in the mountains that would range 30 to 40 miles per hour again sunday night and then as we head into early monday morning. the north bay mountains would be the highest risk here. coming up in about ten minutes, i'll have declals on the expanding drought and of course that has a key impact on our fire danger. i'll show you the latest numbers

in about ten minutes. >> thank you so much, jeff. well, a wind driven brush fire has exploded in southern california. this one burning near irvine. there are several fires actually burning in southern california at this hour. this one in orange county fueled by high winds, dry brush, a recipe for disaster. so as you can see, dangerous situations possibly here this weekend. nbc bay area's jodi hernandez has more on what got local firefighters so concerned. >> reporter: who would have thought we'd be talking about potential red flag fire weather in december? well, take a look at how dry the grasses are. that combined with little rain and possible wind on the way has firefighters worried. debbie and her little dog ginger have been out enjoying the clear, sunny weather every day. >> but always in the back of my mind is i wish it would rain. we need the rain. >> reporter: lack of rain, low humidity,nd a now possible windy weather in the forecast spell a

potential disaster in the making. >> with these current conditions, if we figure in high winds, especially winds out of the north, we then will have a dangerous situation. >> reporter: red flag conditions have already led to two destructive fires in southern california. firefighters there are battling to try to get those fires under control. >> we want to avoid that happening here, but the conditions look like at this point that they will be ripe for heightened fire danger beginning on sunday. >> reporter: contra costa county fire is keeping their fire stations fully staffed, and firefighters are ready to tackle whatever might break out in the coming days. while wildfires are usually not on people's radars this time of year, they need to be. >> we ask all the residents of our district and in fact the entire region to be extremely cautious in all their outdoor

activities and to report any fires immediately to 911. >> reporter: in contra costa county, jodi hernandez, nbc bay area news. still to come, san francisco mayor london breed apologizes for having dinner with friends at the french laundry. what she's promising to do moving forward. plus -- >> they said, what do you need? what scares you? what are we going to need most? >> helping people make it in the bay during in pandemic by helping them pay rent. you're going to introduce you to some people on the peninsula who are helping hundreds of families stay in their homes. when we welcome our west coast viewers, when will covid vaccines be approved for children? we have answers to some of the questions parents are asking. also the government warning over hackers targeting critical supply chains that keep vaccines cold. more when we see you back here tonight. we have the power to harness california's

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for generations to come. postpone your holiday plans. as the governor unveils the new regional stay-at-home order, he's also reminding people please don't travel. whether you travel by car or plane, state health officials say they want you to either postpone or cancel those nonessential trips and just stay home. in fact, there is a statewide travel restriction. >> we know part of what has happened in california is that a number of people who have traveled outside of our state, visited our state, come not beknown it to them, infected, able to transmit covid to others. that is a common way respiratory viruses in particular transmit. >> dr. ghaly added while nonessential travel is discouraged, there will be no

enforcement of the travel restriction. the state is just hoping people do the right thing. yesterday it was mayor sam liccardo. today it's mayor breed apologizing on twitter now. london breed linked to that scathing editorial in the chronicle on covid hypocrisy, and she wrote, this criticism is fair. it doesn't matter whether something is technically allowed or not. her dinner last month at the famous french laundry was technically allowed because napa's restrictions were less restrictive. governor newsom also apologized for dining there last month. mayor breed adds, quote, what i especially regret is that the urgency of our public health message in this moment has never been more dire, and my actions have distracted from that. glide is helping families make it in the bay. the san francisco nonprofit held its annual clothing and toy donation drive today in san francisco. families were given toys, food, and clothing. it's all part of glide's holiday shopping spree. 77 kids were given old navy gift cards in advance. they were able to go online,

shop, and pick up their goodies. more than 90% of family who's are part of glide's family youth and child care center have recently lost income because of the pandemic. covering this pandemic every day for the last eight or nine months, we've known many things here. fair is not one of them. the virus is harder on the old than the young, and the economic fallout has been much harder on low-income compared to high-income earners. but in east palo alto, people are changing with the times to help those who need it most. garvin thomas has tonight's "bay area proud". >> reporter: for more than 20 years in the city of east palo alto, there has been a nonprofit making a lot of noise helping young people. of course much of that noise came from the young people themselves. >> you mean before covid? before covid, it was a million kids in here. >> reporter: eugene jackson is on the staff at live in peace, a group that started out as a

violence prevention program but has shifted into so much more. there's the bike workshop for project-based learning, the gym for fitness of body and mind. >> this is all our college graduates. >> reporter: and educational programs that executive director heather sterns longwood says have sent 70 students on to college degrees. but starting in march, covid restrictions meant they couldn't provide many of those services while more pressing needs suddenly arose. >> it was immediate. the county shut down march 16th. people had already lost their jobs. i mean that day, you know, kids were like, oh, yeah, my mom's not working. >> i've been familiar with this community for a long time. >> reporter: howard cushland is a democratic political consultant who has long volunteered for live in peace. he says the nonprofit knew it needed to pivot, but how? they turned to their clients for the answer. >> they said, what do you need? what scares you? what are we going to need most?

and the answer was resounding -- rent relief. >> reporter: so live in peace did something it had never traditionally done before, went out raising money to help pay people's rents. their original goal was just $100,000. to date, they have raised more than $2.3 million. that is enough to pay the rent for 372 families for three months at a time. the total, more than double live in peace's annual budget. they also created learning pods for students like junior caitlyn mendoza, who needed a place for remote learning. >> at home i'm a family of seven so it's really hard to focus at home when i have little siblings doing classes too. >> reporter: it is a success story in a year that has sadly seen too few of them. a nonprofit able to turn on a dime and turn it into help for hundreds of families. >> we love our community, and we

know our community because we are our community. >> reporter: garvin thomas, nbc bay area news. >> that's credible, especially those learning pods where people with siblings and big families who don't have the setup to learn in those pods. >> so grateful to those nonprofits. let's get a check of our forecast. we've got some dangerous fire weather, which is so odd to say, jeff, in december. >> yeah. you know, we started off the season slow. we got in a little bit of rainfall, and then it has been dry here throughout the past couple of weeks. we really need some rainfall. and as i mentioned, yesterday our rain chances really don't look to pick up until the end of this month and early january. so not good news for part of this weekend in the mountains. i'm going to detail that for you. i wanted to start off with the western patte weather pattern. where you find areas of high pressure, you find that dry weather and it breaks apart any kind of storm system that moves close. you can see high pressure just

offshore. even though we had some clouds through the afternoon, this really broke up any storm activity with this storm system that's starting to enter the pacific northwest. so no rain for us. this will set us up again tomorrow morning with some patchy areas of fog. otherwise it's all about the chill. i'm sure you have that heavier jacket out if you're up early, you know what i mean. we're down to 37 tomorrow morning in the tri-valley. south bay at 41. low 40s in the peninsula. also feeling that cold air back into the east bay at 37. even feeling the chill there in san francisco at 42 and down to 36 in the north bay. daytime highs don't really adjust too much tomorrow. we'll see some relatively light winds as we head through my microclimates here. just check out the box up in the upper left hand corner. and mostly sunny skies for the afternoon. 67 here in san jose. right through the east bay, more of the same. temperatures aren't changing much. 65 in livermore. 66 in oakland. the peninsula, got you at 64 in san mateo. 62 in daly city. and right into san francisco,

our microclimates from the outer sunset to downtown, just a two degree difference. 26 in the outer sunset. downtown at 64. and for napa, 68. santa rosa at 66. down to mill valley, 65 degrees. my extended forecast, the focus will be sunday night into monday for that wind in the mountains, 10 to about 35-mile-per-hour gusts, on and off gusts that will increase that fire danger. san francisco keeps this steady pattern of 60s over the next seven days and dry. and right here through the inland valleys, we'll continue with this dry pattern. we'll go to 67 for the average tomorrow, down to 62 on sunday with our approaching system. then we warm it back up to the upper 60s by monday and tuesday. we'll continue to fall that fire danger, but i do want to end with something kind of fun. my viewer mail tonight. i've been getting photos from all of you on my instagram, twitter, and facebook of your christmas trees. i asked for those. look at karen stephens. she says, jeff, it's never too early to put up the tree.

check out my flamingo christmas palm tree. look at her ornaments on there. it's all themed out with these flamingos. she even has some on surfboards. i've never seen anything like it. what about you guys? >> that's really cool. >> makes me want to get away, but we can't. nonessential travel restricted. thank you so much, jeff. >> thanks, jeff. up next, where are these monoliths coming from? a third metal pillar shows up, this time along the central coast. hmm. we'll have some answers. stay with us. ahead for us, when will covid vaccines be approved for children? we have answers to the questions many parents are asking. also the government warning over hackers targeting critical supply chains that keep vaccines cold. more when we see you back here tonight. ernest hemingway wrote the old man and the sea at 52

satchel paige was still dominating batters at 59. celia cruz was still winning grammys at 77 john wheeler illuminated our ideas of the universe at 70 and roger crouch was 56 when he first went into space your best is yet to come

that came from me. really. my first idea was "in one quarter of an hour, your savings will tower... over you. figuratively speaking." but that's not catchy, is it? that's not going to swim about in your brain. so i thought, what about... 15 minutes. 15 percent. serendipity. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. demonstrators who tore down that statue in san rafael a few months ago aren't finished with their fight. in october you might recall about 50 protesters tore down

the statue of father junipero serra that stood in front of the mission san rafael. five of those demonstrators say they now face felony charges including a hate crime. today their supporters didn't back down. >> we're not apologetic about removing this statue. in fact, i think frankly there's an opportunity for the catholic church, for the diocese to start to make amends and atone for some of the harm that they've caused to the indigenous peoples of california. >> supporters are demanding that all charges be dropped. another mysterious monolith has appeared. the large metal pillar was first spotted in atascadero thursday morning. the object closely resembles similar monoliths found in utah. after one day, the sculpture was removed. a livestream video appears to show a group of young men from southern california tearing it down after one day. well, ahny sight in san

francisco's waterfront. the city's new floating fire station gleamed at sunrise in its new home at pier 22. it's a new home for the department's water rescue gear and fire boat. time-lapse video posted by the public works department captured the delicate overnight job of maneuvering the floating fire station known as number 35 under the bay bridge. it was moved from treasure island. the former home of fire station 35 is a century old building and will be repurposed to house other fire vehicles. >> that's a good-looking fire station. can your sister anchor the news by the way? the holidays are looking a lot different for all of us, even for the queen. we're going to show you how she's changing her royal plans. stay with us. in a land not so far away. people are saving hundreds on the most reliable network with xfinity mobile. they can choose from the latest phones

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tonight at 6:00, free artistic expression or too offensive to be on display. we're going to show you a piece of art officers want taken down at the san jose airport. that's tonight at 6:00. it doesn't matter who you are or even if you wear a crown, we're all changing our holiday traditions. >> queen elizabeth will be staying closer to home for christmas, greeting most of her children and grandchildren, like a lot of us, on zoom. for the past 37 years, the royal family has actually been spending the holidays at the queen's country home about two hours outside of london.

this year buckingham palace says queen elizabeth and prince philip, who are 94 and 99 years old will celebrate quietly at windsor castle. it will be nice to be together virtually. >> that's going to do it for us at 5:00. lester holt is next with "nightly news." tonight the darkest days of the pandemic as the u.s. sets chilling new records. the nation reporting the highest number of covid deaths and over 200,000 new cases in a single day and record hospitalizations, over 100,000. and in california, the potential new lockdowns coming linked to icu space. it comes as president-elect joe biden taps dr. fauci to be his chief medical adviser and our one on one with dr. fauci and why he's warning americans not to travel for christmas. new information on the manufacturing problems that won't allow pfizer to supply as many doses of its