A significant fall surge in coronavirus infections has forced San Francisco to reverse course and reimpose limits on some businesses.
San Francisco Department of Public Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax said this surge could be far worse than the surge in June shortly after Memorial Day. “In the past two weeks, from Oct. 21 through Nov. 5, our rate has increased from 3.7 per 100,000 people to nine per 100,000 residents. We are averaging nearly 80 new cases a day now, up from just 32 new cases at the end of October,” he said.
“We will go up to over 300 cases a day by late December if this increase continues,” Colfax warned. “If we stay on our current course of activities, if we do not pause and we do not reverse, it is entirely plausible that we will face a situation where our health care system could become overwhelmed and reverse the current progress that we’ve made all these many months.”
Mayor London Breed announced the rollback plan. “Sadly, beginning at the end of the day Friday, we will need to eliminate indoor dining, we will need to reduce capacity at gyms and movie theaters,” she said, adding that high schools will also be included.
“We are not making any rollbacks on any elementary or any middle schools because what we know about high schools, unfortunately, is the transmission rate is similar to adults, which is why we need to put a pause on reopening high schools,” said Breed.
You can hear the entire press conference here or tune into our radio station KSFP-LP at 102.5 FM or our stream at 7 p.m. Tuesday, November 10th, 2020.
