While vaccine supplies remain inconsistent and insufficient, San Francisco officially moved to Phase 1B of vaccine eligibility on Wednesday, allowing grocery and food service workers to be next in line alongside educators, daycare workers, emergency services personnel and agricultural workers.
Mayor London Breed previously announced February 24 as the day when the next phase of eligibility would begin, but that was before the city had to pause two mass vaccination sites at City College and Moscone Center due to a lack of vaccine supply. As Breed said on Twitter on Wednesday, “Supply and appointments remain very limited, but if you are now eligible, visit http://sf.gov/getvaccinated!”
It is not entirely clear how grocery and restaurant workers are expected to prove their jobs and, as Eater reported last week, the Golden Gate Restaurant Association is advocating an honor system. Otherwise, as some workers are currently dismissed or dismissed or may not have enough documentation, they say “it will only provide more barriers to obtaining vaccines” and “it will slow down the process”. Currently, sites such as the City College website, which is administered by UCSF, require an online subscription attesting someone’s eligibility and then documentation brought in person as a paycheck, worker badge or other unspecified way of proving employment.
Food service workers were prioritized in other cities like New York, but according to CDC guidelines, they would fall into Phase 1C. We hope this will help restaurants continue to reopen safely here in San Francisco – and, as internal meals are resumed, possibly starting next week, vaccination will help protect servers most at risk of getting the coronavirus than customers due to their volume of exposure to strangers. (We know of at least one story from an International Smoke waitress who believes she contracted the virus during the brief period when dinner was allowed indoors last fall.)
The city of Berkeley opened vaccines for grocery workers last week, but restaurant workers in Alameda County have to go to the Oakland Coliseum to get the vaccines.
“Getting people who live and work in San Francisco to be vaccinated as quickly as possible will help us to keep our entire community safe and save lives,” Breed said in a statement. “We have been dealing with this pandemic for a year and, over that time, our workforce has kept the city running.”
“From grocery store clerks, childcare providers and teachers to emergency workers and restaurant cooks and waiters, these frontline employees have appeared to all of us, and I’m happy to be able to continue expanding the vaccine’s eligibility to include you. “
San Francisco has three mass vaccination sites ready to go, including the last to open at the wholesale market for fresh produce in Bayview, and the city is ready to start vaccinating 10,000 people a day as soon as vaccine supplies arrive. In addition, in the list of vaccine sites in the city, the Oakland Coliseum site administered by FEMA is listed, so qualified workers may want to check it out through the MyTurn.ca.gov site
Breed said that by Wednesday, the city had vaccinated 80% of all seniors and health professionals who are part of Phase 1A, and now 18% of all San Franciscans over 16 have received their first doses. Phase 1A has been estimated to represent about 210,000 people, and includes health professionals who work in San Francisco but live elsewhere in the bay area.
The latter group in Phase 1B is estimated at an additional 168,000 people who live or work in San Francisco.
As of March 15, the state of California said eligibility will be open to people of any age with disabilities or who have one of a list of ten underlying chronic diseases, including pregnancy, type 2 diabetes, cancer, severe obesity, illness kidney and chronic lung disease.
The Moscone Center vaccination site is scheduled to reopen for consultations this Thursday, and the Department of Public Health has also opened two vaccination stations for the elderly where there is no need for consultation – one in SF Geral and another in Southeast Health
On Tuesday, San Francisco remained at the “Purple” level for reopening according to state metrics, however, this was cause for confusion for many, as the city’s COVID numbers have steadily declined – and are not worse than than those in the counties of San Mateo or Marin, which changed to the “Red” level yesterday. But as a precaution or some peculiarity of the state’s algorithm, the city will probably wait until next Tuesday to reopen restaurants and museums with a 25% capacity and internal gyms with a 10% capacity. The other six counties in the Bay Area may also move to the less restrictive “Red” level next week or shortly thereafter.
Previously: San Francisco plans to give vaccine priority to restaurant employees; East Bay grocery workers get vaccinated
Photo: Michael Browning