San Francisco is extending its order to stay at a local home and travel quarantine, both of which could have been suspended next week due to the high case count and concerns about the availability of critical care in the near future, public health officials said. Fifth.
Both the travel quarantine and the order to stay at home will remain in effect indefinitely. Authorities said they would reassess the end dates in a few weeks after the expected outbreaks of coronavirus at Christmas and New Year have passed.
Travel quarantine requires people entering the city from outside the Great Bay area to stay home for 10 days. The previous order was set to expire on January 4.
The extension of the order aims to protect San Francisco from the most dramatic peaks in other parts of California and the United States, public health officials said. They are also keeping quarantine to avoid importing a new, more contagious strain of coronavirus that has been found in some regions, including southern California.
The stay-at-home mandate was instituted by San Francisco on December 6 and then ordered by the state on December 17, when the availability of bay area ICUs dropped to less than 15%. The state order was due to go into effect for at least three weeks and could have been suspended as early as January 8, but San Francisco officials said it would not.
The availability of intensive treatment for the entire bay area reached a new low of 7.5% on Wednesday, although San Francisco fared better than the rest of the region. More than 200 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in San Francisco on Tuesday, including 57 in intensive care.
“We have been proactive in placing the order of stay at home and the travel quarantine to protect the Franciscans and in the hope that, acting quickly, we can level the curve and reopen faster,” said Mayor London Breed in a statement . “This seems to be working, but we need more time to determine if we are going in the right direction and that the December holidays are not delaying us.”
Erin Allday is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @erinallday