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At a virtual press conference live streamed from San Francisco’s coronavirus emergency operations center at Moscone Center, city officials offered updates on their work to enact social distancing protocols, source hotel rooms for people who need to be isolated and deliver personal protective equipment to healthcare workers.

Mayor London Breed said the city is receiving hundreds of thousands of masks, gloves and other such medical equipment from the state government and donations from private companies. An emergency fund open to donations from the public, Give2SF, has racked up more than $5 million in contributions from individuals, and the city also announced a new arts relief fund to support artists in financial distress because of the distancing measures prompted by the pandemic. Breed also pleaded with San Franciscans to heed the shelter-in-place order meant to keep people in their homes except for essential activities.

I host and report for “Civic,” a San Francisco public affairs radio show and podcast from the Public Press. I've been a multimedia reporter and producer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. I've reported on housing, health, immigration and homelessness for local news site Mission Local and produced conversations about local, regional and national current affairs for “Your Call,” a live call-in program on KALW-FM public radio.

Mel Baker is the producer and a contributor to The San Francisco Public Press radio program/podcast Civic. He has worked as a national network and Bay Area broadcaster for many decades. From early training in National Public Radio’s newscast unit, to stints in the newsrooms of KGO radio and KTVU-TV, and as a news anchor and reporter at KALW and other Bay Area stations, he has embraced the responsibility of broadcast media to “enlighten and inform” the community.