It is the question that is on the mind of all San Franciscans: When will the restrictions on COVID-19 be eased?
This question was asked to the city’s health director at a news conference on Tuesday, and although Dr. Grant Colfax provided a vague answer, he hinted that the stay order could continue for weeks.
“Our numbers are still going up and it usually takes a few weeks for those numbers to start dropping after leveling,” said Colfax. “At the moment, we are under the order of protection at the state site. I hope we will continue to do so until at least the end of this month. And we will really have to look at the numbers to see if cases and hospitalization rates start to fall and then we a much better sense of when we will be able to open slowly ”.
California Governor Gavin Newsom introduced the regional home stay order in early December to prevent local health systems from collapsing under the weight of the surge in the number of COVID-19 cases.
It divides the state into five major regions – SF is part of the Greater Bay Area region – and restricts those with capacity for beds in intensive care units below 15%. The order requires most businesses, except essential services and retail, to close operations. Residents in the regions under the order are asked to stay at home, except for work, shopping or other essential activities, such as going to the doctor’s office.
A county may choose to be more restrictive than the state’s regional home stay order, and San Francisco was among several counties in the Bay Area that adopted the order preemptively on December 3, before the ICU’s capacity dropped below 15 %.
The ICU’s capacity is now well below the limit and state data shows that the Bay Area region is at 4.7% on Tuesday.
Health officials will not consider suspending the Bay Area order until the region’s four-week ICU projection shows capacity greater than or equal to 15%, according to the California Department of Public Health.
A woman running in Golden Gate Park passes signs that remind people of social distance and wearing masks in San Francisco on July 28, 2020.
Douglas Zimmerman / SFGATEColfax opened the press conference on Tuesday with an update on the state of the pandemic in the city.
“What we are seeing now is a sudden increase in the holiday on top of an even greater increase on Thanksgiving Day. We are in a dynamic situation where cases are increasing in a post-holiday increase in December above an increase already record after Thanksgiving Day. Post Thanksgiving we saw an increase of about 70% in cases in the weeks following that holiday. Now we saw an increase of about 28% in our post-holiday increase. “
Colfax said the city is receiving an average of 280 new cases a day, almost the same rate after Thanksgiving.
As cases increase, hospitalizations increase and, as of Tuesday, there were 249 patients with COVID-19 hospitalized in SF, compared with 114 at the height of the summer peak in July, Colfax said.
“We need to work on flattening that curve,” said Colfax. “We need to reverse this.”
Colfax said vaccines are a key tool to contain the virus and that the city is looking to expand the infrastructure to administer the vaccine and will open sites around the city as vaccine supplies increase. The city has focused on vaccinating health professionals and qualified nursing facility residents, and this week the San Francisco Health Network will begin vaccinating people aged 65 and over in its 14 primary care settings, including the Hospital General Zuckerberg San Francisco and Hospital Laguna Honda. More than 14,000 people aged 65 and over are served by the San Francisco Health Network. The network offers medical assistance regardless of immigration status or lack of insurance.
Colfax noted that 95% of San Francisco’s population has health insurance – mainly through Kaiser, Sutter Health and UCSF – and these residents should consult with their providers for vaccine information.