Surge: S.F. lands on watch list, forced to shut many venues
San Francisco’s malls and nonessential offices have until Monday to shut down after the city joined the state’s watch list of troubled counties Friday because of a jump in COVID19 hospitalizations.
Neighboring San Mateo is the only Bay Area county not on the watch list. But even that is expected to change by Tuesday, said county Supervisor David Canepa, as coronavirus surges and other worrying trends connected to the virus have hit all nine counties in the region.
In all, 32 of the state’s 58 counties are on the list. And with virus numbers spiking, officials are pleading with the public to follow safe practices.
“Wear your damn masks please or people will die and the economy will collapse,” Canepa said. “Small business
is the spine of our economy. If it fails, we all fail.”
San Francisco Mayor London Breed also expressed frustration Friday that residents continue to join large gatherings and flout mask guidelines, further igniting the pandemic. Public officials are trying to convey a sense of urgency as virus trends keep heading in the wrong direction.
The state looks at six criteria: coronavirus cases, testing, positive test results, a rise in hospitalizations, available ICU beds and available ventilators. Counties are placed on the list if they have a bad trend in at least one criterion for three days running,
And the stakes for counties on the list — and their schools — just got higher. On Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said schools may not conduct inperson instruction in any county unless the county has been off the watch list for two weeks.
If a school reopens, it must follow strict rules.
“People are tired of the virus, but the virus is not tired of us,” Breed said in San Francisco as she urged residents to wear face masks, frequently wash hands and stop gathering.
“We are not reopening until we get this under control,” she added.
San Francisco is in the midst of a recordbreaking surge in hospitalizations. On Friday, 91 people were hospitalized with COVID19 on Friday, triple the number on June 18, when there were 31.
Nearly 4,800 people in San Francisco have become infected with the coronavirus, including 115 new cases reported Friday. In less than two weeks, the number of positive cases rose by nearly 1,000. By comparison, the number of positive cases took nearly 38 days to increase from 2,000 in May to 3,000 in midJune.
At San Francisco General Hospital, the average age of a person hospitalized is 41, said Dr. Grant Colfax, director of the city’s Public Health Department.
“Young people, middleaged people, older people, we are all at risk for this disease and all at risk for serious consequences,” he said. “We know we can do better.”
San Francisco’s trends are reflected across the Bay Area, which had a recordhigh 654 patients hospitalized with COVID19 as of Wednesday, according to state data released Thursday.
A coronavirus outbreak at Santa Rita Jail in Alameda infected 101 inmates and nine staff members and contractors as of Friday evening. It is the jail’s largest outbreak since the pandemic began, officials said. Just two days ago, there were six cases.
Berkeley reported an alarming increase with 25 more UC Berkeley students testing positive, bringing the total of confirmed cases within the school to 95.
Despite the troubling trends, San Francisco still has a lot of hospital capacity left. As of Wednesday, the city had a total of 407 available ICU beds and 682 available acutecare beds, according to the most recently available public data.
The city hit its previous highwater mark of hospitalizations on April 11, with 94 patients, according to city data.
Colfax and Breed talked about how San Francisco is focused on the hardesthit communities. The Latino community makes up 50% of all cases, despite accounting for only 15% of the city’s population. Neighborhoods in the eastern and southeastern parts of the city have been hit hard by the virus’ spread, Colfax said.
As a result, San Francisco opened a new testing site at the Potrero Hill Health Center. Testing sites have also expanded in the Tenderloin, Mission, Sunnydale and Bayview neighborhoods.
The city is conducting an average of 2,599 tests per day, but is still challenged by testingsupply shortages throughout the country that cause delays in appointments and results.
Also on Friday, San Francisco officials announced that a new health order will be issued Monday requiring private health care providers to give the public greater access to testing. Private health care providers will be required to offer sameday testing for people with symptoms of COVID19 or who have been in close contact with an infected person.
Private health care providers have conducted far fewer tests than the city, prompting the order to increase and accelerate testing amid the surge.
Private hospitals and clinics will also have to test asymptomatic workers in jobs where they have a greater risk of exposure, like health care workers. People living in group settings like hotels must also be provided a test if they request one.
Statewide, coronavirus infections reached 374,038, and 7,612 people have died of the disease.
Across the Bay Area, there were 40,068 cases, and 697 deaths.
A record 665 patients were hospitalized in the Bay Area as of Thursday, up 11 from the day before, according to state data released Friday.
Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Solano counties each added five patients.
San Mateo County’s cases increased by 70 on Friday to 4,403. The average case rate is at 101.2 per 100,000 people — and is why the county is expected to join the watch list soon, said Louise Rogers, the county health officer.
Moreover, San Mateo County has some of the lowest hospital capacity in the Bay Area, with just 12% of acutecare beds and 20% of ICU beds available, as of Wednesday.
Meanwhile in Southern California, the state’s epicenter of the virus, Los Angeles County hit a record high with 4,592 new cases and 59 new deaths, bringing the total to 147,468 cases and 3,988 deaths.
To meet the demand of the surge and uptick in cases, a team of 160 military medical and support workers were deployed in California to help hospitals in Imperial County and other virus hot spots, said Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for the governor’s Office of Emergency Services.