San Francisco is training a corps of city workers to trace the contacts of people who may have been exposed to someone suffering from COVID-19.
Dr. Grant Colfax, head of the Department of Public Health, said 50 people are trained to use an app by software firm Dimogi to assist them to remotely contact people who may have been exposed. The hope is that the city will eventually be able to lift the shelter-in-place order by tracing individual cases and vastly expanding testing. Colfax hopes to have 150 people trained within the next few weeks, with hundreds more in the coming months.
The city also announced the opening of a new drive-through testing center in the city’s South of Market District for those who may have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The city is still limiting testing to front-line workers and those who meet the medical criteria for needing a test.
Listen to the full press conference audio below.
“The biggest barrier to increasing our number of tests is instability of the supply chain. We’re not able to get swabs for test collection. These are specialized swabs; you can’t use a Q-Tip. And the medium, the gunk that you put the swab in to keep it stabilized as you transport it to the machines.” — Dr. Grant Colfax
Other updates from today’s press conference:
- Mayor London Breed says the city will open a new testing center in SOMA. (14:28)
- A new application will help people monitor their symptoms to determine if they should be tested. (11:05)
- Dr. Grant Colfax, Director of Public Health, discusses the number of active COVID-19 cases (27:45)
- Trent Rhorer, Executive Director of the Human Services Agency, gives details about the number of unhoused people placed in hotel rooms and therooms available for first responders. (44:20)
- Police Chief Bill Scott says the city will be ramping up enforcement of the shelter-in-place order. (48:20)
- Abigail Stewart-Kahn, Interim Director of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, explains how her department is dealing with the crowding of tents in the tenderloin. (54:30)
- Mayor Breed answers a question about whether the city will open thousands of hotel rooms to homeless residents. (58:30)
- Mayor Breed explains whether San Francisco will loosen shelter-in-place restrictions (1:03:10)
- Dr. Grant Colfax explains what comes after the testing phase of contact tracing projects (1:07:15)
A segment from our radio show, “Civic.” Listen daily at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on 102.5 FM in San Francisco.