Health officials in six Bay Area counties and the city of Berkeley said Monday that orders to shelter in place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus will be extended through the month of May.

In a joint statement, officials in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties and Berkeley, which has its own health department, said a new round of health orders would “largely” keep current restrictions in place, but would also “include limited easing of specific restrictions for a small number of lower-risk activities.”

The orders, which regional health officials are collaborating on, have not yet been released. Monday’s announcement, which amounts to a notice of the forthcoming orders, did not specify what activities will be permitted nor when the new mandates would take effect. The full health orders are expected this week.

The current orders for the six counties and Berkeley were set to expire May 3. The first mandatory shelter-in-place orders, requiring some 7 million Bay Area residents to stay home for all but the most essential errands, took effect March 17.

The mandates have played key roles in preventing the spread of coronavirus throughout the region, preventing hospital systems from becoming overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. Any plans to ease the restrictions under the shelter-in-place orders will depend on the ability of cities and other jurisdictions to respond to and control the spread of future infections, with the intention of keeping health care systems from becoming inundated.

But in sharply limiting people’s activity, the orders have left still-deepening scars on the economy, evidenced in part by unprecedented jobless claims and shuttering businesses. And while many ache for a return to normalcy, Bay Area health officials warned Monday that lifting the stay-home orders too quickly would risk a renewed surge in cases, potentially undoing the gains made so far.

“We need to stand our ground and maintain our gains,” San Francisco Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax said at a Monday news conference. “This virus is still out there, and it is still a threat.”

Public health officials will be focused intently on the number of COVID-19-related hospitalizations, among other key metrics, when making decisions about when and how to inch toward reopening cities and other jurisdictions. A “sustained decline” in the number of hospitalizations — a significant reduction over a period of two weeks, the incubation period for the virus — would be one encouraging sign, Colfax said.

Moving toward normalcy will also require a major expansion of testing capability, in case, for example, a large number of tests are needed following an outbreak, Colfax said. Ensuring hospitals can handle potential surges and that a sufficient quantity of personal protective equipment is readily available will also inform decisions about reopening across the region.

Regional health officials said the coronavirus pandemic is “still in its early stages. The virus spreads easily, testing capacity is limited and expanding slowly, and vaccine development is just beginning. We expect to be responding to COVID-19 in our communities for a long time.”

Three other Bay Area counties also have stay-home orders, but are not part of the joint Bay Area directive. Last week, Solano County extended its order to May 17 and Napa County announced it is extending its local order indefinitely.

Several counties already have loosened some local sheltering orders. Napa County is allowing some construction to resume, for example. Other counties across the state have reopened parks, beaches and golf courses. Susan Gorin, chairwoman of Sonoma County’s Board of Supervisors, said the county expects to issue an updated shelter-in-place order this week that could allow residents more access to county parks. Sonoma County’s stay-home order was also set to expire May 3.

The entire state falls under shelter-in-place orders issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom on March 19. He has not said when those statewide orders might be lifted. In many places, including the Bay Area, local stay-home directives are more restrictive than the state order.

Newsom said Monday that the relatively stable number of coronavirus hospitalizations and a drop in deaths over the weekend were an “encouraging sign” for the state.

“The reality is we are just a few weeks away, not months away, from making measurable and meaningful changes to our stay-at-home order,” he said. “That is a very optimistic point to emphasize.”

But Newsom warned that progress is threatened by behavior that undermined the stay-at-home order, such as the large crowds that flocked to beaches in Orange and Ventura counties this past weekend. If people do not continue to practice physical distancing, he said, plans to reopen the state would be delayed.

“This virus doesn’t take the weekends off. This virus doesn’t go home because it’s a beautiful, sunny day around our coasts,” he said. “It is ubiquitous, it is invisible, and it remains deadly.”

Separately, San Francisco officials on Monday said John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park and John F. Shelley Drive in McLaren Park will close to vehicle traffic through the duration of the stay-at-home order to provide people more space to practice social distancing while getting outside for fresh air and exercise.

The streets will be closed around the clock starting at 6 a.m. Tuesday. City officials were reticent at first to close the streets out of concern that the public would flock to them once cars had been prohibited, making it harder for people to keep at least 6 feet away from one another.

“We know that people need to go outside, whether to get exercise or just clear their head, and closing JFK and Shelley Drive to cars will make it easier for people who chose to leave their home to stay six feet apart from others,” Mayor London Breed said in a statement. “That said, we all need to work together to keep slowing the spread of COVID-19 in our community. Everyone must continue to stay home as much as possible and follow all public health recommendations.”

JFK Drive will be closed to vehicular traffic from Kezar Drive to Transverse Drive — the same as a regular Sunday street closure in Golden Gate Park. The entire Shelly Drive loop will be closed to vehicles at McLaren Park, with locked gates at Cambridge and Mansell streets.

Breed also walked back remarks she made at a news conference Friday, when she accused the Federal Emergency Management Agency of confiscating and diverting a shipment of personal protective equipment that the city was purchasing. Though she reiterated that obtaining such equipment, like masks, gloves and gowns, remains frustratingly problematic, Breed said the city was given bad information from a third-party supplier about the shipment and apologized to FEMA for the mistake. FEMA, she added, was now investigating the incident.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writers Erin Allday and Alexei Koseff contributed to this report.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa