San Francisco could introduce indoor mask warrant next week amid rising COVID-19 cases

With the Delta variant infecting both vaccinated and unvaccinated city residents, Mayor Breed and health director Dr Grant Colfax announced on Friday that action would be taken next week to control its spread – which could include an interior mask warrant.

Well, it was really fun while this lasted. But with bomb results released by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) this week showing the transmissibility of the Delta variant, as well as its ability to cause more severe cases of COVID-19, masks are likely to become again a necessary part of our grocery shopping and dining outings.

“We’re close to a mandate to wear masks, and I know people are fed up with being told what to do, but the point is, that’s where we are,” Breed said at the meeting. ‘an outdoor event on Friday. Her comments made yesterday also align with similar remarks she shared at a crowded (and largely maskless) indoor event at Manny’s earlier this week.

Given that there is now a vaccination mandate for city staff, it makes sense to assume that San Francisco will reinstate a mask-wearing rule in public spaces; San Francisco is also proud to be a national model for pandemic protocols and security measures, so it would be strange if the city ignored the CDC’s recommendations – which currently include support for port mandates of masks for areas of high COVID-19 transmission.

San Francisco, alas, is seen as an area with an alarming rise in COVID-19 infections, illness-related hospitalizations, and positive test rates.

Following Breed’s sentiment on Friday, ABC7 noted that the city’s health director, Dr Grant Colfax, said he would meet with other county health officials to take action as early as next week.

“The Delta is the source of the vast majority of our COVID cases,” Colfax said. “This surge is going faster than even the surge we saw in the fall or winter.”

That said: The city’s COVID-19 response has been notably “data-driven, science-based and fact-based.” And findings from the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) and CDC continue to prove that vaccines are incredibly effective at preventing infections; are integral to mitigating generalized epidemics and significantly reduce the risk of needing hospitalization (which also helps keep intensive care beds available for those who need them most).

“San Francisco’s response to COVID-19 has always been based on data, science and fact, and the more data we can analyze to guide our public health decisions, the better,” Colfax added in a SFDPH press release Friday. “The data we are seeing today shows that vaccines are very effective in protecting people against serious illness and hospitalizations due to COVID-19, even though we are seeing groundbreaking cases. Getting vaccinated is your best protection. “

Hide yourself. To get vaccinated. And please: speak abundantly to those in your life who for some inexplicable reason think Joe Rogan and the comedians are more qualified to give medical advice than some of the top public health experts in the country.

For more information on Covid-19 vaccines, as well as how to get one in the city and county of San Francisco, visit sf.gov/get-vaccinated-against-covid-19.

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Photo: San Francisco Mayor London Breed wears a face mask that reads ‘We Rise’ during a press conference outside San Francisco’s Zuckerberg General Hospital with essential workers to mark the first anniversary of the COVID-19 shutdown on March 17, 2021 in San Francisco, California. San Francisco has one of the lowest numbers of coronavirus cases and death rates in the country with just 422 deaths in a city of nearly 900,000 people. (Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)