and we are also looking at the data. and we feel that, you know, we need to continue to look at the data, it's too early to say that this is completely been taken care of and we have accomplished everything that we want to do with the shelter in place, which again, to remind everyone, is to try to decrease the speed at which people are getting infections with covid-19.

primarily so that we don't have a lot of people becoming very ill at once and overwhelming our hospital system. so, we're measuring the number of hospitalizations, we're measuring the number of cases. and we know that those cases will continue to go up, because one of the challenges that i'm sure people have heard about is that testing is very challenging and getting enough tests in place. so, as we test more, we'll see more cases. but we're going to keep monitoring how or hospitals are doing, how our capacity is doing, and so far in the bay area, we've been able to take care of patients as they've come in, which is a good sign, and which really shows that we need people to continue the good work they've been doing, with sheltering in place and following the other recommendations we have had. >> absolutely. we're going to take some questions that are getting submitted to us right now. a question from instagram. what are the chances that the stay at home orders get extended? >> so, they have been extended once already. they're now extended through the end of this month. and we know that it's really

challenging for people. so, these are things that have to be balanced. the difficulty and the disruption to individual people's lives and because we don't have a vaccine yet, because we're still trying to find effective treatments, we know that the shelter in place is the most effective tool that we have. so, i don't have a complete yes or no answer about that. what i can say is that we are weighing the data every single day. we know that there's a great cost to sheltering in place in terms of people's lives. and we also know that we want to prevent thekind of real heartache and devastation that we've seen in the health care system and in the lives of people in other countries and in other cities here in the united states, like in new york city, so, it's a challenging question. we're evaluating it every single day. >> when you talk about new york city, you know, there was a point when the bay area and new york pretty much had comparable number of cases and we've seen a huge spike in new york. do you foresee, if we continue doing what we're doing here in the bay area, that we could get to that point in new york?

or are we kind of, you know, are we past that point at this point? >> well, i think, again, we will see more cases in the bay area, and we are increasing our testing capacity every single day and every single week, so, we want more people to have access to tests. we know that that's been really challenging and we especially want the people who are most at risk for serious complications of covid-19 to be able to get tests. and so, that is our goal. as we increase testing, we're going to see more cases. but again, i think it's not necessarily just the number of cases, it's that curve, as you eluded to. how are we doing in that? how steep is that rise in the number of cases? and how quickly is that happening? the other thing that's going to be really important is looking at hospitalizations, and director grant colfax and the mayor have announced we're going to have new data that's up on the department website where people can look to see our testing and hospitalization

numbers. that will help us all understand in how we're doing in relation to new york and how we're doing just compared to ourselves. >> i want to ask another question now from instagram. someone asked us, do you have any updates on how the virus spreads? >> so, we know that the virus spreads throug respiratory droplets, so, primarily through just coming out of our nose and mouth. what's become increasingly apparent, and what experts have learned over the last several weeks, is really how much it may be true that we could be asymptomatic or have very, very low level symptoms and still transmit virus to other people. so, that was really the impetus for our recommendation last week, at the end of last week, that all of us actually cover our nose and our mouth when we go out, and it can be with a scarf, it can be with a piece of cloth, a bandanna, it doesn't have to be a mask, and in fact, we would like to leave masks for the health professionals. if you are using a mask, make

sure to use it as long as possible. the goal with that mask, with covering our face, is really just to try to decrease the amount of virus that we might transmit to others without intending to, without feeling sick at all. and if we are all doing that, then we all have some measure of protection. it's yet another layer of ways in which we can try to disrupt the transmission cycles in the bay area. >> you know, we've seen other counties in the state, as we talk about masks, require masks. do you foresee san francisco making this an actual requirement for people? >> we, again, are always weighing new data and new evidence and we're weighing it against sort of how we are doing with our number of cases. so, at this point, we are not going to be making it a requirement, but we always want to continu looking at our numbers, looking at feedback that we're getting and seeing the experience of other counties in california that might be doing that. we might make an adjustment in

the future, but for now, it is just a strong recommendation that everyone do this. >> all right, dr. phillips, stay with us. we are taking a break on air. if you are streaming with us, we'll keep the questions going online, you can join us on facebook, abc7news.com website or on metastatic breast cancer is relentless, but i'm relentless too. because every day matters. and having more of them is possible with verzenio, the only one of its kind proven to help you live significantly longer when taken with fulvestrant, regardless of menopausal status. and it's the only one of its kind you can take every day. verzenio + fulvestrant is approved for women with hr+, her2- metastatic breast cancer whose disease has progressed after hormonal treatment. diarrhea is common, may be severe, or cause dehydration or infection. at first sign of diarrhea, call your doctor, start an anti-diarrheal, and drink fluids. before taking verzenio, tell your doctor if you have fever, chills, or other signs of infection. verzenio may cause low white blood cell counts,

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you now know that in the next earthquake your house will be standing and we also got a discount on our earthquake insurance. if there is an earthquake. our house has a better chance of surviving in. break. stick with us. hold on. all right, everyone, welcome back. we're back with dr. susan phillips. we've been continuing to stream on our facebook and instagram. quickly, for those who missed it, we were talking about, if you see someone on the street, a homeless person who is coughing, and you were just sort of finishing up that answer there? >> yes. they are a priority population for services and for prevention and what you can do is, if you notice someone who is unsheltered and who looks like they may need assistance, call 311 and report it there. and we will make sure that someone from our emergency operation center is able to follow up and assist. >> all right. we're getting another question now from facebook, from jill, asking, how does this compare to

sars? >> so, that is a very good question. sars is also a coronavirus, so, they are in the same family of c viruses. sars was a much more deadly virus. many more people died if they contracted it, however, it wasn't as easily spread. so, this coronavirus, this covid-19 disease, this infection we're seeing now, is much easier to spread person to person than sars was. but people who became infected with sars were much more likely to have very serious infections or to die. that's a great question. >> i want to ask you something that i know some of my network of friends and family have been talking about, and that is this idea of false negatives in tests. kws the wall street journal" said potentially 1 in 3 tests is a false negative. what do you know about that and how concerning is this for you? >> yeah, we are learning -- we're learning more and more about the testing as we do more of it. and i have seen those reports, as well. i think the reports that i've seen have said maybe 1 in 5. but you know, i think it likely

could be a range. and i think that the tests we have may not be -- may not be perfect, they're not 100% sensitive and 100% accurate and very few tests are, so there is some degree to which we want to increase testing and we need to have a clinical suspicion that people continue to have symptoms that are very suggestive of covid-19 even with a negative t test. this is an area we're going to have to pay close attention to and understand the limitations of the test and also await better tests that come out as more and more manufacturers develop tests for us. >> friends of mine, a couple, one tested negative, one tested positive, yet they had the same similymptoms at the same time, it does make you question the accuracy of these tests. >> yes. and in public health, what we would most likely recommend is they both consider themselves positive and treat themselves in the same way, in terms of staying at home until their symptoms have resolved and their fever has gone away.

>> all right, let's talk about masks again. julie is asking us, how long can you reuse a mask? >> i think as long as the mask is -- it's dry and is not visibly dirty, you can use a mask for a very long time. i received one mask, sort of as a result of working in the emergency operations center and i've been wearing it more or less for two eck woos. i don't wear it in the rain, but other than that, you can wear them for a long time. the point of the face covering is really to make sure that we are not spreading any of our droplets out without meaning to to people. that is done in conjunction with staying six feet away and trying to stay at home as much as we can. >> all right, on instagram, another question, what happens if we hurt ourselves and we need to go to the hospital for any other reason? is it safe right now? >> you know, if people are injured, if people are in motor vehicle collisions, i mean, this is part of the reason why we are working so hard to maintain capacity at our hospitals. and particularly, you know, at

san francisco general, our only level one trauma center in the city. we know people might need to go into the hospital. at the hospitals, they are taking every precaution to make sure that they are both putting masks on patients as they come in and the staff are also masked and wearing their ppe. so, it is not a time to go in for elective surgeries or, you know, visits that are optional. this is not the time to go in for a routine visit, but if you need to go in because of a medical reason, please do go in and have confidence in our medical professionals. >> all right, i think -- i'm told that maybe we're out of time, or we have time for another question. we're out of time. we'll get more during our break right now. if you are sticking with us on the livestream, we'll keep them going. thank you dr. susan phillip. live with us right now. coming up, i had a great conversation with the santa clara public health

all right, welcome back. santa clara public health

director sara cody was the first to sound the alarm about the outbreak of the coronavirus. she's been seen as the dr. fauci of the bay area. today, i talked to her about the growing pandemic and how her early action may have slowed the spread of covid-19 here in the bay area. it was a fascinating conversation. take a listen. dr. cody, i want to start big picture with you. we're entering our fourth week sheltering in place here in the bay area. why is a surge still expected to come if we've been sheltering in place for this long now? >> so, we have to remember that everyone in our community is likely susceptible, in other words, if exposed to the virus, would become infected. and so, when you have conditions like this, we expect a surge. what our shelter in place order does, though, is slow things down so that we spread the cases out over a longer period of time and we spread the number of people who are severely ill and

require hospitalization out over a longer period of time, as well. >> does that mean that you expect almost everybody at some point is going to be infected? >> well, yes, probably, at some point. of course, but what we're waiting for, but it's quite a long ways off is a vaccine. and so absent a vaccine and absent a treatment, what we're using are called npis, or nonpharmaceutical interventions. and our best tool right now is the shelter in place order. >> you've been given some well deserved praise for being one of the first to ring the alarm about this pandemic. the bay area was thus the first in the country to enact the shelter in place orders at your urging. do you think that this is why we aren't seeing as many cases as other hot spots in the bay area? is it a sign that we're beginning to flatten the curve? >> well, i -- while we're not out of theed woo ewoods, i am cautiously optimistic that we've

put our hospitals and health care partners in a better position to manage the infections that we expect will continue to be coming. what i will say is that, you know, taking action early gives us an advantage. gave us an advantage in slowing things down. it has, of course, caused enormous social and economic disruption, but had we taken the actions later, we would still be sheltering in place, we would still be experiencing incredible social and economic disruption, and we would be having incredible strain on our health care system, as well. >> and you got the call on january 31st about the first case of coronavirus in the bay area in your county, santa clara county. at that point, did you expect that we would be where we are today with more than 1,200 cases in your county? did you expect, more, less?

>> what i can tell you is that in january, you know, late january and early february, the experience we were having was, like, being in a dark theater, and so we just had one little sign, you know, one traveler and then two travelers return with this infection. but we didn't have the tools in place to allow us to understand how -- whether there was spread in the community and if so, to what degree. the pattern of this epidemic is becoming more clear every day, but it is still not completely clear and that's because we still don't have widespread testing. >> on that front, you were sort of raising the alarm in the beginning of this year. do you think the federal government waited too long to respond? >> well, i prefer to focus on what we're able to do here in our county, in the county of santa clara, in collaboration with our partners and our

colleagues across the bay area, and i think that we've been able to make a difference, working together. there -- i won't lie, there have been incredible challenges and many of those have to do with different level of preparedness by some of our partners. >> on a personal note, you and your family live in this community, as well, and are also just as impacted as everybody else. personally, what keeps you up at night right now? >> well, there's a lot that keeps me up at night, but i think that for me and for everyone living here, i just have to keep reminding myself that this is a marathon and we have to keep ourselves nourished somehow and we have to keep our energy good, because we're going to be at this for a very, very long time. >> when you say that, a very, very long time, what is your timeline?

when do you think we might start to get back to some kind of normal? >> the honest truth is, i don't know. but looking at patterns in other places in the world, the pattern seems to be that when the community lets up on social distancing, for example, cases tend to resurge. and that's not surprising, right? because we still don't have widespread immunity in the population. so, we have to think about all the different ways in which we can limit spread and keep the rate of growth as slow as possible. >> just to go into that a little more there, i think people are going to watch and think you're saying almost everybody is probably at some point going to get infected, we're going to be in this for a very, very long time. i mean, are we talking a year, i mean, when are people going to feel safe to be able to mingle and mix with others again? >> well, i think we're still adjusting to our new normal, you

know, life right now is very, very, very different than it was at the end of 2019. and part of our new normal and our new life is living with a lot of uncertainty. we just don't have certainty about what things are going to look like, you know, a month down the line or three months down the line or six months down the line. there's uncertainty. we don't know. >> why is santa clara county, at this point, not releasing where the cases are within the county so that people can then try to avoid those certain areas? >> so, we want to be offering to the public and everyone as much information as we have. we also want to make sure that we are offering information a way that's useful. so we will have information out very soon on geography, but i want to say, and this is really important, what we know now from all the signals that we see is

that this coronavirus is very widespread in the county of santa clara. it's everywhere. and so even if you live, say you live in a city and you see, well, there's not very many cases in my city, that doesn't mean anything as far as a protective action that you need to be taking. >> if your own kids said, mom, when do i get back to school, would you assure them that maybe fall? >> mostly what i'm trying to do in my own home is try to get my kids used to online learning. they're not a big fan of it, but that's -- that's the reality at the moment, so, that's where we're focused. >> so, you're saying there's a chance, maybe, fall is -- we don't go back to school? >> i just sort of want to go back to our new normal is that everything is uncertain. >> got it. all right. we're almost at the end of our interview. i know there's a couple of things you want to talk about today, the unhoused population,

as well as discrimination in our communities. i'll give you a chance to talk about those issues. >> thank you. so, covid-19, as with any infectious disease, tends to find populations that are more vulnerable. and any time you have an infection that's really easily spread from person to person, of course, it will spread more easily in conditions where there's more crowding and those are the -- where we're particularly concerned about areas in our county, communities where people are living in crowded homes. and if you think about it, if you have folks living together in a crowded home, it's extraordinarily difficult to practice consistent social distancing. and if someone in that home becomes ill, it's really hard to self-isolate away from others in a home that's crowded. so, one of our bodies of work right now is to try to understand as best we can how we can help.

and how we can make sure that covid-19 does not spread quickly in communities like that. >> very important issues. thank you so much for all the work you're doing. thank you and i appreciate your time. thanks, dr. cody. >> thank you so much. >> all right, so, that was our interview with dr. cody, who is sort of the dr. fauci of the bay area. we can feel really proud that she and so many of other health officials raised the alarm early and the bay area was the first region in the country to enact the shelter in place orders. as you heard her say, she said taking action early gives us an advantage, it gave us an advantage in slowing things down. there was a point, we we seeing the same number of cases in the new york area and the bay area, we've seen what happens in new york. so far, the bay area hasn't gotten there yet. it was good to hear from her on that front and many other fronts, sort of a grim forecast there. we're going to take a break, for those of you watching on air. when we come back, we break down

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for the love! oh. the moment. stick with us. hold on. all right, welcome back. we are now able to bring you even more content now that we have this new platform at 3:00 every day here on abc 7, and we get more from our special correspondent, dr. patel. here is part of our coronavirus team of experts and every day he's talking to directly to you about a hot topic and this one today could be a game changer. >> on today's covid-19 doctor's note, we're going to talk about the newly approved antibody test. last week, the fda drafted emergency use authorization for a new blood test that looks for antibodies against sars-cov-2. this test requires a drop of blood, takes about 15 to 20 minutes and it looks for proteins your immune system would have made if you had covid-19 in the past. the test is looking for two antibodies, igm and igg, but here's the catch. the test looking for signs of a

previous infection and may not be that reliable at detecting a recent one. because in the early phases of an infection, your immune system needs time to make those andy bodies. so, if you get tested in this early phase, you could get a false negative. on the other hand, the test looking for viral genetic material, the nose and throat swab one, is fairly reliable at detecting those recent infections. the antibody test will hopefully tell us who has been exposed in the past and who may have immunity. it will also give us really important information at looking at how widespread this disease is among people who had it in the past and didn't have any symptoms or had mild symptoms and weren't tested. we'll start to learn more as the test rolls out to hot spot areas. and as we learn more, so you will. stay tuned. >> really good information there from dr. patel. crossing our fingers we can get that test soon, as well as the vaccine. thank you for joining us here on this new interactive show. we'll be here every day at 3:00,

on air and on our livestream answering your questions. facebook live, youtube live, a tonight, the death toll in the u.s. surpasses 10,000. the urgent request in new york city and new jersey. the president just moments ago responding. and the breaking headline. british prime minister boris johnson moved to intensive care. here in the u.s., the death toll mounting. more than 1,000 dying in just 24 hours. tonight, governor andrew cuomo on the numbers, and what they could now be showing. we're on the front lines inside one new york city hospital. at the javits convention center, where teams of doctors are taking in coronavirus patients. and the governor who said today he asked the president if the navy ship comfort could now take patients with the virus. the president just addressing this and we'll have it. all of this after the surgeon general warned that in this country, the next two weeks