possibly 170 people in the hospital. what we know about that is it continues to be the unvaccinated that are driving these hospitalizations, particularly within eight times higher rate among the unvaccinated compared to the vaccinated. anchor: eight times higher. there are folks who are hospitalized now who have been vaccinated. >> there are but it is extremely

rare. i cannot emphasize enough that the real importance of vaccination, the value of vaccination and not only keeping people from getting infected but most importantly, keeping them from getting sick and dying from covid-19. anchor: let's talk about the vaccine. the mandate has kicked in in san francisco, effective today for a high-risk indoor area. which businesses does this cover? were a customer and want to go in. which businesses will ask for the vaccine proof? reporter: as you mentioned, it is a high-risk -- dr. phillip: is a high-risk businesses. that includes people -- places where people are removing asks -- masks to eat or drink but also areas where people are exerting themselves, breathing more heavily in an indoor space. gyms, recreational facilities, and the like. we have a requirement now or vaccination in any setting in which there are 1000 people or more.

it used to be 5000 or more and we have decreased that. those are the primary settings where it goes into effect today. anchor: trigger investigations and contact tracing, have you noticed any transmission happening at jim's work -- or restaurants? dr. possible to ask people where they have been infected the contact tracer but cdc collates and public health colleagues do particular types of studies that are more in-depth and are able to apply that. restaurants and gyms are what has been shown internationally to be associated. anchor: i know for employees, the indoor vaccine mandate, they have more time to comply. what is the deadline? dr. phillip" into these establishments as

patrons, today is the day to start. for the staff working there, it was october 13. they have more time because we can choose to go or not go to an individual place of business that is covered under this requirement but certainly, we want to make sure people keep their livelihood and jobs and we are giving them more time to comply. anchor: for the customers, they should know this. which forms of proof are acceptable? dr. phillip: multiple peer people could bring their -- multiple. people could bring their card or a digital photo of their farm -- card. they could have a qr code in their name and a date they got vaccinated. they can bring a note from the doctor or letter that says they have been vaccinated. there are multiple ways to do this. anchor: any issues or heard about today? dr. phillips: it seems to be going well so far. we have heard overall positive things about keeping patrons safe and staff safe. we know it will make the overall

city environment safer. san francisco has lead in this throughout. we are the first city in the country to require full vaccination. anchor: we have heard a few business owners say they do not understand this or do not have the capability to scan qr codes from the registry. how does that work and what do they need? dr. asked questions along with the order on our city website that people can look at. they do not have to have a qr code. along with the code all of us might have gotten. underneath that is our name and the dates we that, it doesn't have to be specialized technology. we are not asking a person to be stationed at the door. if i go to a restaurant, i do not have to show proof because someone can go in and pick up a takeout order without having to be vaccinated. it applies when i'm betaine can

to my table to be seated -- being taken to my table to be seated and i can show a picture of a card or letter on my phone. anchor: this being san francisco, i know the buy-in is high and strong. if a business does not comply like they do not check or follow through, are there consequences and will you do enforcement? dr. phillip: since the beginning as with all orders, we want to do enforcement and education and it is important before we go to enforcement. this is a legal order. it is a legal requirement by the health order. if there were repeated instances were asserted business was not complying after working with them, we could then go to enforcement but that is not what we are thinking about now as we are rolling out. we are here to support businesses. anchor: schools have reopened and i know that you are supporting schools as well. tell us how you are doing that. dr. phillips: this is wonderful

that we have our kids back in school. the city is supporting schools by really helping take the lead in partnership with the schools on investigating any potential cases of staff or students with --to understand who might need to stay home and isolate or quarantine to be safe. we are also advising on all prevention measures schools have in place layer after layer. vaccination for staff and the kids who are eligible as well as ventilation and masking. where hopeful and know the importance of having kids back for their help and education. it is a great week for san francisco. anchor: most people think caution is a great idea but i have heard parents say my kids they show mild symptoms because they have wildfire smoke allergies or sensitivities or maybe they just have a cough but it is not covid. they're being told to go home if they have symptoms resembling what could be covid and this is a burden. what do you think about that?

dr. phillip: i think we are learning. we are all learning. we have had a few days of all the kids coming back and i think that initially, we are being a bit more cautious and more people get tested when they have symptoms and we will come into more of an equilibrium and being able to understand when it is important to say home but for right now, our main priority is to make sure kids can stay in school and covid is not being transmitted in school so we are airing on the side of caution. anchor: dr. susan phillip. thank you. don't go away. i have one more question for you during commercial break on facebook live if you don't mind but on air, a college student who is moving into his dorm when he realized he had covid-19. you won't believe how he figured it

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thank you for sharing. college kids are going back toog school right now after a year of mostly being virtual learning off-campus. uc berkeley week. we will talk to a university official about how they are hindering -- handling covid safety. dorm living is communal and arrest especially with the delta variant which is driving up the cases among young people. many joining us now now now noww journalist who has been on abc seven this past year documenting his lockdown experience as a student. good to see you. edward: nice to see you too. anchor: i know you are in quarantine because you are covid positive. edward: yes i'm covid positive. anchor: i'm sorry to hear that but happy to see you smiling. we will get into that in a little i want to remind viewers why they know you. in march 2020, you are a junior

at san mateo high school and captured the day your school closed down. your dad, an anesthesiologist, was deployed to help people when the pandemic was happening. you became more -- one of the team to be followed. i should start with congrats for going to u.s. - usc. you're going to become a journalist? edward: that is the plan. anchor: anchor: this is good practice. it should be a super happy time and it is because on wednesday, you moved into your dorm but something not great happened. you suspected you at covid. how? edward: i moved in wednesday and started unpacking everything to move into my dorm. we got everything set up. as i set up my cleaning supplies, i realized i could not smell anything. i held up my shampoo to my nose and could not smell it. my dad could. i realized something was up. i convinced my parents to get me out of campus. they thought i was having a

panic attack but i was not. we went to cvs and got a rapid test and i tested positive for covid. anchor: did you follow up with the pcr tests? edward: we did not follow up with the pcr tests. i was told by the university that i was symptomatic, regular test. anchor: that was proof enough combined with the test. what did you do? what happened? you had moved into your dormant. i assume you had time with your remains. what happened? did you go elsewhere? edward: i did not. they didn't have to quarantine at all. i moved in and interacted with nobody at the time it. afterward, i contacted usc student health and they set me up with a hotel room in a hotel off-campus. that is where i am now and will be for the next 10 days until august 29. anchor: they bring you food.

you can't go out at all? edward: i cannot go out of all but we have an analogous -- allowance for food. we are good on that end. anchor: the downside is, isn't this supposed to be orientation week and are you missing everything? edward: yeah. that is the part of it that sucks. it is orientation week and i missing orientation events. campus is literally across my window so i can see it sometimes. that bums me out a bit. i will be back the second week of classes. next sunday isn't too far away. anchor: that is very unselfish of you. other than not being able to smell, you don't look sick. you don't feel that sick. you could have just gone out to all the events, had fun, but you could've exposed a lot of people and got another's infected and chose not to.

edward: it would've been easy for me to just stay in my dorm and on campus but i think i did the right thing. i am bummed out. i don't regret it. i am bummed out. anchor: your dad being a doctor, i am sure, yet this is the course of action you had to take. i'm sorry about the timing. they let you check into the dorm without a test first? is that right? edward: usc, they recommend test for students. they didn't have any spot on the portal to actually put an actual test result. i was dumb -- and don't do this -- i thought i was traveling a short distance between the bay area and los angeles. i scheduled a test already with the school for three days after i arrived in l.a. because that is when they require it. to move into the dorm, they did not require it. it was recommended. anchor: wow. edward: i suspect there are a

lot of students who could be symptom activity on campus -- symptomatic on campus and not know it or reported. anchor: that is different from uc berkeley and we are talking to an official. i want to ask about that. did everybody around you get tested? your parents and her close friends and with everybody else ok and negative? edward: luckily for me, me, parents have tested both negative even though i was driving with them all the way down. they are continuing to get tested and keep coming up negative so that is good. anchor: do you know how you got infected? any idea at all? edward: not really. i will admit i have been going out just a bit because it was my last week and i was saying goodbye to people so i think that is when i got infected. anchor: gosh. it this something you thought about before starting college, that moving from the safety of home to the communal living environment, there could be a risk?

did you talk to your roommates about being vaccinated? anchor: no. i assumed everyone on campus is vaccinated. we have a 90% vaccination rate and i thought i was vaccinated and safer but breakthrough cases are more common now. that means 10% may not be. edward: 10% may not be. anchor: out of the school of 70,000 people, that is 7000 people possibly not vaccinated and so as you mentioned, with delta in the breakthroughs, what happened to you, i should've told folks off the back your fully vaccinated. it happens. your symptoms other than not smelling, not too bad. what is your message to people -- especially to teens? edward: wear masks. this thing is not over at all, even if you are vaccinated and think you are fine. you have a high chance you will be fine but please wear a mask to be safe because you might end up like me who got infected with

covid right as i was moving into college and anchor: anchor: it's not fun at all. anchor: i'm sorry you're going through it but happy to see you smiling and doing well and no doubt you will be documenting this as part of your journey. teen journalist at usc from the bay area. thank you so much for sharing your story. i appreciate it. best of luck. go get him at usc. edward: i hope in 10 days. anchor: thank you. we saw how u.s. he is handling this. next we will talk to an official from uc berkeley about what they are doing as students return to campus this week. we will take a short break on the

thousands of students at uc berkeley are moving into the dorms and beginning a new school year which will be mostly in person learning after being virtual last year. as we just saw, young people are not immune to covid. their case numbers are going up with the delta variant. joining us to share how uc

berkeley is trying to ensure a safe college experience, the assistant vice chancellor of student engagement, samuel santos junior. thank you for joining us. mr. santos: good afternoon. how are you? anchor: just fine. i am in alum so happy to talk about what is happening at cal. walk us through uc berkeley's arrival in check in process. that was happening all this week and what you're doing to prevent covid outbreaks indoors. mr. santos: absolutely. first of all, go bears. second, we are excited to welcome students back to campus. there were two main things students had to do moving into the residence halls. appointments. the first was a testing appointment they were required to complete before moving in and the second appointment was a one hour window to move into the dorms. as you know, we have the face coverings, mandates, daily symptoms screener, vaccine mandate for the system, and regular testing. anchor: you mentioned a mandate but you allow for religious and

medical exemptions. mr. santos: absolutely. anchor: what is the percentage? can you give us the percentage that have cemented vaccine proof? mr. santos: over 90% of students have complied with the mandate. we have a few hundred students that have gone through the process to get an exemption. we require students good for a specific process to request an exemption. we are excited that well over 90% of students are following the mandate. anchor: for those who do not get the exemptions approved and did not finish the process, would they be kept from attending class or living in the dorms? mr. santos: yes. what will happen is our student council will follow-up up with the student specifically. it will have a hold on their account. we are reaching out to them one by one to ask what we can do to support them. where finding a few didn't know how to do them or were in the process of completing the steps to get either an exemption or show proof of vaccination.

again, over 90% of students are complying. anchor: that is great. i don't know if you saw the student who came on before he was able to enter his usc dorm before he got the test at uc berkeley. you have to get the test in the negative result before you go into your dorm. mr. santos: you have to take the test. not the negative result. you need to take a test before you come in and you have a one hour window and if you are showing any symptoms, we take you to a secondary test site where there is a one hour test where uhs team will work with the student to figure out what is the safest way to get you on campus and in your room. anchor: what if you find a positive case? if usc moved edward to a hotel. he has to quarantine for 10 days. what will happen account with a positive student? -- at cal with a positive student? mr. santos: if a student test positive, we move students to isolation with 100 rooms immediately. we like to take into

consideration that it is stressful to have this experience as a young person and we want to make sure you are caring for and supported so we want to make sure the student understands we are doing this to support them and our community and not in any way to guilt, shame, or blame them. anchor: if you have a case, how does the communication work and who do you alert? the roommates or the whole floor? mr. santos: if we have a case, we immediately contact the students. there are contact tracers. they contact the student. we move through quickly and go through the process of finding out who their close contacts were. oftentimes if they hadn't moved in yet or just moved in, there are a few contacts. a whole team of folks will move to see how many roommates they were in contact with and who needs to be notified. anchor: once they have settled in, going forward through the rest of the school year, will there be regular a symptom at a testing? mr. santos: yes. every student is required to continue testing. anchor: weekly? mr. santos: weekly is not

required for students that are unvaccinated and have gone through the dubs in process but everyone else is required to do regular testing. anchor: do you have a process for allowing vaccinated students who are not comfortable sharing a room with unvaccinated students to express that and have that happen? mr. santos: sure. we treat all of these cases on a case-by-case basis. it is private medical information so we let the students know if they would like to share with each other their vaccination status, they are not required to do so. if they are concerned about it and it does come up, we asked him to speak with residence hall staff and we will speak with him through the process of what this might look like to move or talk through their concerns. we are finding most students have been very clear in communicating with each other. anchor: there is an option for moving if you're truly not comfortable. what about wearing masks? or did they have to do it in the dorms and also talk about on campus.

mr. santos: masks are required indoors no matter what. there are exceptions. if the student is in their dorm room or brushing of people or in the shower. all other indoor spaces, students and employees are required to wear masks. anchor: of course, the lectors -- and talk to me about the lectures. i know myself, the intro classes can be 700 to 800 students. that is not happening in person this year, is it? mr. santos: all of our classes above 200 students are online. that is when we are addressing the large classes. anchor: the smaller classes or in person but the larger ones are still virtual. other activities -- are there events or activities that were scheduled that would normally happen at this time that are on hold or virtual? mr. santos: our orientation process has been almost exclusively online. yesterday, -- we did that

convocation online. we have done in person activities. a lot of our program between 5 p.m. and midnight is done outdoors. we had a field day for students in our new story and orientation -- student orientation outside. we are doing our best to meet students where they are understanding that connection and community happens best in person and we are finding the balance here. anchor: samuel santos junior. the assistant vice chancellor of student engagement. if you have a couple of more minutes, continu hey, i just got a text from my sister. you remember rick, her neighbor? sure, he's the 76-year-old guy who still runs marathons, right? sadly, not anymore. -what, you mean-- -mhm. -just like that. -wow. so sudden. um, we're not about to have the "we need life insurance" conversation again, are we? no, we're having the "we're getting coverage so we don't have to worry about it" conversation.

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quarantine after losing his sense of smell, testing positive for covid, and we have learned how cal is handling students tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. the hurricane watches and warnings now up across much of the northeast. from new jersey, new york, up into massachusetts, and the major headline tonight on afghanistan. president biden before the american people today promising americans in afghanistan, we will get you home. tonight, the evacuation efforts in kabul unfolding in front of the world. late today, the associated press now reporting u.s. military helicopters have begun flying into taliban held kabul to air lift evacuees to the airport. if so, that would be another major step forward in what the president described today as a dangerous mission already. millions seeing that image of an american marine lifting a baby over the airport wall. the prid