SF COVID-19 infections on the rise again, race advocates for vaccination in Bayview

San Francisco is the “poster city” for vaccination rates, but since reopening on June 15, we’ve gone from 10 new cases per day to around 40.

Above, we see the Moscone Center vaccine line, which we won’t see again because Wednesday was the last day of the Moscone Center acting as a site for mass vaccination. And we’ve all seen the headlines that San Francisco is achieving collective immunity, and our Department of Public Health said as of Tuesday 83% of the city’s eligible population had at least one injection and 76% of those eligible were fully vaccinated. .

But we could see a rude awakening of reversal, in fact we already are sort of. Just as Los Angeles will reinstate its indoor mask tenure on Sunday amid a spike in COVID-19 cases, the Chronicle reports that SF officials are concerned about an increase in cases, especially in black and Latinx communities. less vaccinated.

Take a look at the seven-day average of new SF COVID cases from DPH tracking information. Back on “reopening day” on June 15, we had 10 new cases. As of this week, the 7-day average is 42 new cases per day, and data for the most recent day (July 10) shows 63 new cases, albeit with the qualifier “Less reliable, likely to be updated. day”. The culprit is probably the Delta variant, which increases the urgency to get the remaining 20-25% vaccinated as soon as possible.

“In particular, the black community has the lowest vaccination rate compared to the city’s rate, which means that more people who are already struggling with significant disparities in this city could get sick,” the city said. Mayor of London Breed in a statement ahead of a press conference Thursday. in the Bayview. “As we push back three pushes in San Francisco, the Delta variant brings new challenges that will continue to increase the disparities we see in communities of color.”

We don’t have a ton of neighborhood-specific data, but in a Tuesday statement to The Chronicle, the DPH acknowledged that “new infections are not distributed evenly across all neighborhoods and communities in San Francisco.” District 10 supervisor Shamann Walton, also in attendance at Thursday’s press conference, noted that zip code 94124 has the highest COVID-19 infection rate and is in his district. “Bayview Hunters Point is still one of the areas hardest hit by COVID-19 infections, especially in the African American community,” he said in a statement. “With the new delta variant which is more transmissible, it is essential that our community get vaccinated as soon as possible.”

To this end, the Bayview has free vaccination sites at the Southeast Health Center at 2401 Keith Street and 1800 Oakdale. Times and other locations for vaccination are listed at sf.gov/get-vaccinated.

It might not be bad after Thanksgiving, but it’s bad. And it’s a problem the whole country is having, as the New York Times just reported that all 50 states are seeing a slight increase in the number of cases. Whether it’s the reopening, the groundbreaking cases, the Delta variant, or just interstate tourism, everyone from Breed to Fauci and Biden will need to dig deeper into their bags of tricks to prevent this thing from happening. go back in the wrong direction.

Related: Some groundbreaking cases of COVID among vaccines appearing in the Bay Area; CDC puts East Bay areas on hotspot list [SFist]

Image: SFDPH via Twitter