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This is the question that preoccupies all San Franciscans: When will the restrictions on COVID-19 be relaxed?
This question was posed to the city’s health director at a press conference on Tuesday, and although Dr Grant Colfax provided a vague answer, he hinted that the stay-at-home order could last. weeks.
“Our numbers keep going up, and it usually takes a few weeks for those numbers to start going down once they stabilize,” Colfax said. “For the moment, we are under the order of the State on the shelters in place. I think we will continue to do this until the end of the month at least. And in reality, we’re going to have to watch the numbers to see if any cases and hospitalization rates start to drop and then we’ll have a much better idea of when we can gradually open up. “
California Governor Gavin Newsom introduced the regional stay-at-home order in early December to prevent local health systems from collapsing under the weight of skyrocketing COVID-19 cases .
It divides the state into five major regions – SF is part of the Greater Bay Area – and restricts those with an intensive care unit bed capacity of less than 15%. The order forces most businesses, with the exception of essential services and retail, to shut down. Residents of areas subject to the ordinance are urged to stay at home except for work, errands, or other essential activities, such as going to the doctor’s office.
A county can choose to be more restrictive than the state’s regional stay-at-home order, and San Francisco was among several Bay Area counties that passed the preventive order on Dec. 3. before the ICU capacity drops below 15%.
USI capacity is now well below threshold and state data shows the Bay Area is at 4.7% on Tuesday.
Health officials will not consider lifting the Bay Area order until the region’s four-week ICU projection shows 15 percent or more capacity, according to the Department of California Public Health.
A woman jogging in Golden Gate Park walks past signs reminding people of social distancing and wears masks in San Francisco on July 28, 2020.
Douglas Zimmerman / SFGATEColfax opened Tuesday’s press conference with an update on the state of the pandemic in the city.
“What we’re seeing right now is a holiday wave on top of an even bigger Thanksgiving wave. We’re in a dynamic situation where cases are increasing after the December vacation above a wave. already record high after Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving. we have seen an increase of about 70% in cases in the weeks after that holiday. Now we have seen an increase of about 28% in our post-holiday outbreak. “
Colfax said the city averages about 280 new cases per day, about the same rate of cases after Thanksgiving.
As cases increase, hospitalizations increase and as of Tuesday 249 patients with COVID-19 were hospitalized in SF, up from 114 at the height of the summer surge in July, Colfax said.
“We have to work to flatten that curve,” Colfax said. “We need to turn the tide.”
Colfax said vaccines are a key tool in fighting the virus and the city is looking to expand infrastructure to deliver the vaccine and will open sites around the city as vaccine supply increases. The city has focused on vaccinating healthcare workers and residents of skilled nursing facilities, and this week the San Francisco Health Network will begin immunizing people aged 65 and older in its 14 sites that provide primary care, including the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Laguna Honda Hospital. More than 14,000 people aged 65 and over are served by the San Francisco Health Network. The network provides health care regardless of immigration status or lack of insurance.
Colfax noted that 95% of San Francisco’s population has health insurance – primarily through Kaiser, Sutter Health, and UCSF – and these residents should look to their providers for information on vaccines.
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