leadership has done a great job and doing their best for the small business community, has been very aggressive. certainly supervisor peskin has and supervisor ronan and supervisor haney has held several small business hearings. supervisor fewer has done important work at the budget community. supervisor mandelman has written an op-ed along with other business leaders, including laurie thomas from tgra that i thought was very impactful. i think we have some pretty good advocates and i appreciate you bringing that up and i think it's our job to help them do an even better job and gave them good advice. so, thank you for mentioning that. ok.

commissioner adams, he is on the phone. >> i am on the phone. [laughter] >> i started this new job and i am dealing with a lot of small businesses right now. so it was our monday call. so i apologize. but i will echo what everybody said. i think the supervisors are doing an excellent job. i think this mayor has done an outstanding job. i mean, unfortunately the shelter in place, you know, we had to do it and our numbers show that we're notlike the rest of the country right now, thank god. but it's interesting i will tell you in my line of work that i'm doing, the small businesses are working with you and, you know, we're giving

them rent breaks. it's the big major tenant that they don't care, they just send you a letter saying we're not paying rent. talk to us in three months. it's horrible. >> right. well, thank you, commissioner adams. and i hope i'm not cutting you off. >> ok. great. is there any other commissioner comment or reports? >> i've got -- i should chat, shouldn't i? >> no, you're fine. let's go. one is -- it's been said a couple of times. catherine, i think there is a raccoon behind you. oh, no, it's a cat. [laughter] i thought it was a raccoon! [laughter] there's a badger on your -- so

obviously we talked about this but in the conversation that i had with brick and mortar businesses, especially in the mission district and the castro, it is clear to so many of us that, you know, the p.p.p. is going to be the thing that could save us if we are to be saved by -- if there is going to be an a extension of shelter in place. which seems likely. it seems unlikely that the mayor is going to lift shelter in place completely on may 3. that means that the only thing that is going to allow us to be in the black with the slow roll-out is going to be p.b.b. just because shelter in place is open doesn't mean that restaurants and like my own means that i a goring to make their money back and pressured to rehire their employees. i think it behooves us

individually and as a commission to be exploring every opportunity and avenue in relationship we have to try to get both the small business administration, the banks and the federal government to basically get their shiting to. it has been such a mess and so patchwork and confusing and this is supposed to be our lifeline and it's like they made this buoy for us and they constructed it and then they're just like throwing it all over the place and most of us aren't catching i. so, i applaud the federal government for creating this buoy and -- but a buoy doesn't work if you don't latch on to it. so we need to do what we can do to get -- to make sure that these buoys are getting to our monolingual owners and small business owners who don't have relationships at big or small banks and that members of congress, to the extent that we're not allowed to talk to them, but the way that we can get a communication made to them that they need to lean on the s.b.a. and small

banks and s.b.a. lenders to smooth out the wrinkles in this process. that is what's become super clear to me. i've had a lot of merchants on the valencia corridor call me, panicked. you know, have you gotten your p.p.p., why is it not happening? what do i do? the p.p.p. thing is clearly the number one thing on folks' mind. the second thing is a lot of news reports and commentary is now shifting to what a recovery looks like. you know, how long will it take? what will the roll-out look like for getting back to, quote-unquote normal. it is unlikely we'll have a cure or a vaccine within six to 12 months. maybe some kind of treatment within six months. by think we really need to start thinking as a small business commission and a small business community. what is the first bit of support we're providing to our

small business owners as it relates to a slow rollback. specifically if the city is going to say some restaurants and bars and grocery stores and whomever can open up but only be at 50% capacity or are only allowed to have x amount of people per square foot, that could very well be not as bad as shutting down, but certainly not enough to sustain a lot of our brick and mortar businesses. and just because shelter in place is lifted does not mean that we have -- that we can stop really thinking about how do we keep our small businesses in the black. especially those that operate on high volume, low margin type businesses. if the city is going to lower our volume, that could be death over the long-term. i really do want to -- maybe not this this commission meeting but maybe the next one -- to be very forward thinking in what can we do to provide the continual support needed to our small businesses, to

accommodate what will likely be a very slow return to whatever we might consider to be a normal slow as it relates to blocking street traffic, attendance at events, volume in high volume of people walking into restaurants, flower shops. whatever restrictions the city and frankly the state and country put on our physical spaces in order to do business. >> commissioner, i think that is very well said. and i think, you know, the first part is we need to speak as commissioner ortiz spoke about -- first we need to deal with the immediate liquidity concerns of small business. and, you know, certainly that is where our focus is right now and that is appropriate for where it should be right now. because the need is so critical. but obviously at some point,

this will start to turn towards recovery and we need to start thinking about what that recovery looks like. and i think it is very appropriate to bring that up. and i think we need to start thinking about that rapidly. in fact, i would say, and i think many would agree that that would be an appropriate topic for our next meeting to start to talk about how are we going to recover. let me just say on a personal level, and to commissioner dooley's earlier comment about independent contractors and sole proprietors. i was a professional musician for most of my -- or for the first half of my adult life. and now i have a business that serves the music community. most musicians and artists basically have no income at

all, no way to collect unemployment, no employer to provide them with medical care and are completely shut out of this process like so many other sole proprietors and independent contractors and yet their services are critical both upstream and downstream to so many other small businesses. there are many bars and venues that count on the draw of these artists and musicians in order to sustain their bars and venues and, you know, when we think about a slow rollback, as you were talking about, i think that there are several components to that that we had not previously considered, which is just one example and one of the items that was

brought up and supervisor mandelman's op-ed was that it's not possible for a bar to have live performance and music, even just a single guitar player or single artist wut securing a permit first. i think obviously that is the very sort of musician-centric sort of viewpoint on what is really a much larger problem, which is how do we get the economy started. but i'm using that to illustrate that we're going to. to sort through each of these individual concerns and help the city and elected officials prioritize the remedies to these issues and we have to process that very, very quickly. i think that should probably be

on our next agenda, how we start to think about the recovery and i'd encourage the commissioners, all of our commissioners to start thinking about what we might want to include on the recovery. this meeting hack for our suggestions for the federal level. my assessment was that we -- the biggest impact on the small business community in san francisco would come at the federal level. and so we have tried to focus our effort there is first. but next will be state and local. and the other part of the federal plea there, stao, that we're on a very short timeline because they're going to be debating and negotiating these topics within the next week, couple of weeks. but i think obviously there is also state and local policis that need to be updated, changed, addressed and our role here is critical.

so, i think because we're -- as you said earlier, we're the ones that know. we're the ones that are feeling this. we're the ones on the frontlines. it is not just a concern for small business. we are the small businesses. we are the ones that can speak in first person. i, for example, i don't have enough money in the bank to pay my staff that i have on now, even after being forced to lay off most of them. and i'm approved for p.p.p. so when is the money going to be here? i have no idea. and then when the money shows up, you know, i can -- 75% is for payroll, 25% is for rent. but in my particular industry, we have many of our offices only have one or two people. so rent as a percentage of our expenses far greater than 25%. where's the rest of that money

come from when i have zero revenue. >> [inaudible]. >> yeah? >> i have a quick question and i apologized that i missed the beginning part of this. did we discuss -- because the one thing that the federal government does need to address that they haven't, and i think they're going to start now, and this has to do with rent and the landlords. you know, they have commercial rents to pay. and the government came in and you could do forebearance and whatnot. but what is the federal government going to do because this is basically the economy. what is the federal government going to do for, you know, the commercial landlords who 90% of commercial landlords in this

country, have mortgages on their property and they can't make their mortgage payments. >> right. well, i mean, to illustrate -- >> by the way, that will affect the small businesses that are in there. >> so, you know, that's a real concern. but i think we have to identify whether there are commercial landlords so i'm thinking about the scope of the small business commission and just how far our scope extends into the banks and advocating for commercial landlords. do you know -- stephen, you might be in a position to know -- are commercial landlords able to take advantage of p.p.p. or eidl or the mainstream program? >> yes.

and on the p.p.p., they are. and what we're doing, that is going to be paying our proper -- paying our employees so we don't have to lay them off. now we don't have rent, but we have mortgage payments we need to make and that is just not enough to cover the mortgage payments. and when you have your major tenants and stuff not paying, people not paying, you know, we're fortunate we made our mortgage payments for april, but may be another thing. and we're not the only ones. and it just worries me just the trickle-down effect to the small businesses. and by the way, i'm a firm believer. thank god i'm on this commission. i'm working, every single one of my small buzzes, i'm deferring their rent for the next couple of months. and i'm working with them, and

thank god. some of them wouldn't be around. but it is something that's in the back of my mind. it is something that you don't hear much out of the federal government because it will affect the livelihood of a lot of these small businesses. >> i am a leaseholder in several states across the u.s. and i had choice but to tell our landlord that i would not be able to make the april rent until we were able to obtain some kind of federal aid. so now i'm sort of perplexed at how i'm going to make that work with 25% of payroll and i will say that most of our landlords have been pretty understanding.

however, not all of them have. some of them have obligations above and beyond, you know, it is not as simple as they don't get paid that month. they have to turn around and pay their lenders. i certainly hope that the federal government can find a way to square that. and let me ask you this question. i know you have a long history in banking. from a mortgage holder, or lien holder's perspective, are you able to negotiate skips at will or do you have federal regulations that sort of restrict you from being able to waive or stop payments beyond a certain point? >> no, you can do -- so if ---once your loan is originated, whether it is a portfolio loan or something

that's owned by fannie or freddie, you go into a -- the o.c.c. will tell you you have to go into a forebearance agreement. so right now foreclosures in the -- is how i understand it in the residential industry right now. even this goes for apartment buildings as welt. so people who own apartment buildings, the regulators are saying you can do forebearance agreements with these people and especially if your loan is own by fannie may or freddie mac, you do a forebearance agreement and tack it on to tend of the loan. >> it comment -- common for a commercial mortgage to be done through fannie mae? >> just apartment buildings. not the others. >> not commercial properties. >> right.

the only commercial property would be an apartment building. because that is fannie mae has the market on the apartment buildings. >> that is the point that you're making is the federal government has not provided the same sort of flexibility to lenders with respect to commercial mortgages. >> correct. >> ok. i think that is an important point. >> president laguana, this is commission kerr ortiz. you mentioned nit your memo but also the equitable. definitely in our neighborhood, you can start seeing the predatory speculators and from our cultural aspect, our businesses have been barely holding on and trying to keep the neighborhood culturally centrc and we're in great fear we'll be replaced.

the gentrification will take [inaudible] hype drive because of this. thank you for mutting -- putting that in the memo. for certain neighborhood, we're really scared. >> there is a very real concern and threat that folks that are well-capitalized right now and have lots of money for lack of a better word and are not in a place of being threatened are now going to have a fire sale on small businesses and real estate all over the country and we'll be able to swoop up and consolidate all of these distressed businesses. that has negative aspects to it in terms of maintaining cultural communities like the mission. and also has significant anti-consumer aspects if a diverse small business ecosystem is replaced by a

significantly less diverse patchwork of larger corporations replacing the mom and pops. i think the public doesn't realize that small business of aggregate is the largest employer in the united states. and so it is that dynamic and diverse group of entrepreneurs and employees that enable the country to operate as efficiently as it does and gets a lot less efficient and it's actually really bad for economy if it's further consolidated. as you and i know, we've been working on this for a long time, small business has been under attack for lack of a better word, you know, for quite a while now. we've seen that in the number

of small businesses that are registered with the city. it has been continually declining for as far back as i've seen numbers, which is at least the last four or five years. so, you know, i think it is critical that we find a way to make sure these small businesss can survive and the last item on that menu -- sorry, on that memo did speak directly to that issue. which is there should be federal protection that stops larger corporations, private equity folks sitting on a lat of capital from just scooping up everything in a fire sale and consolidating i. that is not helpful for our economy. it is not helpful for our communities and it is not in the best interest of the country at all. we'll do what we can.

we're one tiny little commission and in a large city and an even larger country. but we'll be as aggressive as we can. and this is probably a good moment to point out that i've been blown away by the strength and quality of or commission and the people on the commission. commissioner ortiz, you've been a leader in your community and forceful advocate behind the scenes. commissioner yekutiel has been engaging with many of our leaders in public conversations. i've attended several of them. and they have been enliepgening and it is a huge asset and resource for the community. commissioner dooley is a very forceful advocate for, you know, even just the points that she brought up about sole proprietors today are going to impact and shape how we move

forward on this. commissioner zouzounis has, you know, pointed out to me privately with issues of the supply chain for food, to small grocers and disadvantaged community and has been leading the effort to try and make that better while simultaneously working on the census and making sure that our community is counted properly. commissioner adams, you know, has been as he just mentioned on the phone nonstop with all kinds of small businesses and helping them and deploying his many years of experience. and i'm just going off of memory here so i feel like i'm almost certainly leaving somebody out. but i know that all of us have just been working night and day to do everything we can to advocate for this community and i also want to thank the small

business community at large for giving us this information, giving us this -- giving us this feedback and enabling us to advocate for you. i left off commissioner huey, who has been attending a number of different meetings throughout the city and i've been hearing about them secondhand from other people who have been impactful and supervisor fewer, specifically, called her out and commended her during a budget hearing on that $10 million grant as it was moving through the legislative process. so i'm blessed to have all of you as colleagues. i appreciate everything that you're doing and i know our community does as well. and i think we're blessed to have a really sharp and smart community. the business associations had

been really commendable at not just advocating for their members' interests, but the interest of the entire community and sometimes even in opposition to their larger interests. i think there's been a general awareness and recognition that small business urgently needs assistance and everybody has been pulling together to try and try and get that community to make sure it has the support that it needs. obviously we're up against a huge mountain. so we're all just going to have to do everything we can and one way oar another, we will get through this. this country has faced a pandemic in the past and there was pain in the short-term. you get on the other side of it and we'll start to rebuild. we will rebuild and come together and we'll be a

community that can come back from this and get to a better place. so i really appreciate all of you deeply. for the work that you are doing and certainly from my perspective, if there is anything more i can do for you or ways to facilitate the commission operating even more effectively, i just want you to know that i'm here for all of you. you're welcome to text or e-mail or call anytime day or night. if there is anything i can do, i absolutely will do it. >> thank you, president. we appreciate you. >> thank you. so with that -- >> [inaudible] more comments. >> ok. yeah. >> if possible. a couple of things. yes, i like the idea of having some foresight for when we come back online. i know a lot of small

businesses fear being taxed heavily once we're back online because we're facing a deficit. so keim of maybe brainstorming protections around that. also if there is a piece of legislation that is coming before one of the committees of board of supervisors on thursday regarding broesh ri workers and delivery workers and some regulations that the city is making around their safety. i want to make sure that that is being interpreted for small businesses. and that they have tools to understand what is being asked of them because essential businesses need to be aware and assisted in any new regulations on them. i also wanted to let you all know that i have been talking

to sfpd around the six supplementals which included a business curfew for type 20 and 21 liquor license businesses. the curfew is for 8:00 p.m. we're still trying to get clarity on whether this extends to businesses that have restaurants within them. for example, we have corner markets that have taquiriases in them where people are getting food after 8:00 p.m. so we still don't have a lot of clarity on some of those nuanced questions. but i just wanted to put that out there. >> so, you know, i'm glad you brought up that pending legislation. perhaps the director can speak

to unthe current emergency order -- my current understanding is that legislative items like that that would typically come before us, for us to have feedback or provide comment on is that the case that that will not happen under the current emergency order? >> yes. it's not been forwarded under the current emergency order. it was introduced on the 7th. we have to be very careful and how we speak about it today because we did not agentize it as a discussion item. but that does not preclude -- does not preclude the department from providing feedback. and providing input on the legislative items. >> what would be the mechanism for us to provide that feedback?

>> there would not be a mechanism specifically from the commission to provide that feedback, but based upon the experience that the department is seeing in relationship to the roll-out of the different essential guidance on essential businesses and the feedback that we're hearing, we have a very good understanding and what businesss are experiencing -- small businesses are experiencing and so can provide that feedback in writing. also in consultation with the different industries that are affected by this as well. >> so, this is probably a good opportunity to point out to the commission that, under the current order, we cannot meet without authorization from the

mayor or the supervisors. i believe it is one or the other. is that correct, director? >> i will defer to dominica, who's a bit more on top of this than i am. >> it is either/or. >> either/or. >> that is my understanding. >> right. so, the threshold is that it has to be urgent, related to covid-19, and kind of has to meet some sort of urgent emergency action. is that correct? >> yes. and has to do with the essential functions of, you know t city as a whole while we endure this local emergency. >> right. right. so, the meeting that we're having today, we had to do a lot of work to meet that threshold so i just want to let the commissioners know -- i

would certainly like to be meeting more often. but it is not easy to do. it is not as simple as -- we can't just meet at our normal time and we can't just meet because we want to meet. we have to meet a higher threshold. so, that is kind of challenging and so along those lines, i would encourage you to be -- you know, when we're seeing stuff like the six supplemental and the impacts on the cur fi and on businesss that, say, for example, have a taqeira or corner store or hearing new legislation, i would encourage you to stay in close contact with our director and our secretary and make sure that they understand your position

so that when the office interfaces with policymakers, they're able to speak with authority and some sense of where you stand on it, particularly if it's something that affects you or your community or the folks that you represent because it is going to be very difficult for us as a commission until the emergency order passes, it is going to be difficult for us to weigh in directly. >> and just so that i make sure that commissioners, as we have conversations and have discussions, i just want to make sure that it's very clear since we are meeting as a body now, we're meeting as a body that feedback that is provided without it being before the

commission, cannot -- unless the commission meets as a body and has a formal discussion, i can not provide any comment as in relationship to as a specific body. so clearly understand that. i can have conversations as individual businesses and the implications and the impact as i would with any other business or business organization. i just need to make sure that's on the public record. >> yes. thank you for clarifying that distinction. i will say as a means of apology as well, i know many of you were looking at a long list on this memo and many of you were, you know, when the agenda for the meeting was released, it was the first you heard about it.

of course, under the brown act, i can't speak with everybody about an item that is going to be on the agenda without violating the brown act. so that made it difficult to move forward so we had to move forward as exp/e di,ly as we could while sort of adhering to the legal requirements in four corners of brown act. but that obviously does not preclude us from -- as individual constituents from advocating for ourselves and as our community. so, you should do that. thank you, director, for making that distinction. ok. any other commissioner comments? >> i don't know if this is the right point to make. but i do think that we should request the ability to meet in two weeks to talk about --i

don't know if we formally need a hearing but we should meet in the next two weeks to talk not just recovery but roll-out strategy and how to support small businesses. i guess it's all the same. >> yeah. i agree. obviously. i agree. equally obviously. it is not up to me. [laughter] so i can -- you know, we can talk about what we want to talk about and we can work together to prepare an agenda and i certainly think that helps the argument if we can show our work and show that i's going to be an appropriate use of of our city worker's time in this time of limited resources. and as appropriate with respect to the overall emergencies. so, i support you.

i will do my best to make it happen. by want to be really clear about the limit and extent of my abilitis to make it happen. >> right. understood. thank you, sharky. >> sharky, could i bring this up one more time? our supervisors are out there and they're listening. and i know myself with my district supervisor, as an individual, i am pressured for getting the flower market open so there are things in the hands of supervisors that are helpful for small businesses and we don't have to wait forever for those things to be done because our supervisors are out there and they want to hear from us. >> right. i agree. i think our next move now is to do our work so we can show our work.

and make our case. so i would encourage all of the commissioners to start thinking about what recovery looked like and what our community will need in recovery and how we move through that recovery process. i will say that i'm convinced we've done everything we can with respect to the federal question. we probably punch well above our weight. so it's probably appropriate for us to start thinking about the state and local questions at this point and i'd encourage all of you to start thinking about what sort of suggestions we can make, what needs to change. how can we help make it better and how can we support all of our leaders in making the best possible decisions that they can so that we do an effective job of representing our community.

we'll try and -- it is very difficult because of the remote nature of our work now and, you know, not having regularly scheduled meetings to coordinate. but i will get together with the director and we'll try to formulate some strategy to how we're going to assemble this information and then we will try and come up with a strategy for who we're going to present it to and how we're going to ask this question so we can move forward. great. is there any other commissioner comments? ok. seeing none, next item, please. >> mr. president, we need to call for public comment. >> owe, my gosh. i'm sorry. i forgot. thank you. do we have any public comment?

>> if there are public commenters, you have to call in. dial-0. --dial 1-0. the access code is 3107252. 7452. sorry. 3104752.

>> we'll give them one more minute. >> no one is on the line, commissioner laguana. >> ok. so with that, public comment is closed. next item, please. >> sfgov tv, please show the office of small business slide. >> let me know when the slide is showing. or do we not have the ability to show the slide? >> checking in with tech.

>> it is up on the screen now. >> great. >> ok. we will end this meeting with a reminder that the small business commission is the official public forum to voice your opinion and concerns about policis that affect the economic vitality of small businesses in san francisco. and that the office of small business is the best place to get answers about doing business in san francisco during the current local emergency. if you need assistance with small business matters, please continue to reach out to the office of small business. >> item four, adjournment. action item. is there a motion? >> i motion. >> i second. >> motion by commission er adam

to adjourn, seconded by president laguana. roll call vote. [roll call] >> meeting is adjourned at 1:16 p.m. thank you, everyone. >> thank you.

the director of the department of public health, dr. grant colfax. the director of the department of emergency management, mary ellen carroll. the director of the department of human services trent rhorer. the director of the department of homelessness and housing, abigail stewart-khan and our police chief bill scott. thank you for joining us this afternoon. i want to start by providing the most updated numbers currently. we have 1,058 cases here in san francisco of those diagnosed with the coronavirus. and sadly, we have 20 people who died from this illness. and for more information, please visit data sf.org/covid-19 for

our full tracker and more information that you may be interested in reviewing. today i just wanted to talk about the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake. this weekend marks the 106th anniversary of the earthquake. when we all can look back on our history and remember during that time, not only did the earthquake hit and it really physically destroyed buildings and many parts of our city, there was a very devastating fire that occurred. and, in fact, over 3,000 people lost their lives. and during that time, san franciscans didn't throw up their hands. we took to our feet, we came together with businesses, with people from all over the city and we focused on rebuilding. we got through that because we

came together. we got through the 1906 earthquake because we worked together. because we didn't throw up our hands. we focused on recovery. and that really is the spirit of what it means to be a san franciscan. it really does represent who we are, because we focus on how do we get through this and how do we move forward and how do we become better than ever? this is a resilient city because of that. and just like after the 1906 earthquake, the work that went into rebuilding our city and making it stronger for future earthquakes that we knew were coming, we also really rebuilt this city and we have been through a number of challenges that have made us even stronger and better. this is a pandemic like no other.

and this is a challenge that we will get through. and just like in the 1906 earthquake, we will rebuild and thrive. today i want to talk a little bit about our new directive that dr. colfax will provide more information about. and that is a new requirement to wear face coverings. we recommended face covering in the past and now as of midnight tonight, it will be a requirement. but i don't want you to be alarmed. i want to make sure that people know our goal isn't to enforce until april 22nd to give people who may not have access to face coverings the opportunity to get access to them. we are working to distribute some to many of our vulnerable populations, but we want to ask

members of the public to do this now if you can. whether it's a mask -- and there is no need to wear an n95 mask. those should be reserved for health care workers, but any type of mask, face-covering, a scarf, something that covers your nose and mouth, this will be a requirement for people who are standing in line at grocery stores or any other places open for essential services. it's going to be required when you're inside of those locations. any time you're indoors or within close proximity of others within an essential business or at work, like many of our city employees who are essential workers on the front lines, you will be required to wear a mask. now, if someone is out walking and they're with other folks, someone is out and they're with

other people in their household, or you're running or exercising or doing something out in the open and you're social distancing yourself from others, that is not as problematic as when you're standing in line and in other locations where there are a lot of people. we want to be clear that the requirement to wear face coverings does not take the place of social distancing. maintaining six feet regardless of this new requirement. and i also want to make it clear, if you are not a police officer, don't act like one. we're not expecting people to police one another, because the fact is, you can't control what other people do. you can only control what you do. and what we ask you to do is, if you can obey the order and have a face covering on and keep your distance at least six feet from

anyone. i want to be clear, what we don't want is more confrontation, more stress and more drama in general as a result of this order. we don't expect anyone in this city to step up and police anyone other than the people who work for the san francisco police department. so, please, do your part to follow the order and worry about what you need to do and not what someone else is doing. and we'll do our very best in order to manage this situation. and dr. colfax will talk a little bit more about the face covering requirements, but this does not -- this does not change the need for us to social distance ourselves from one another, it does not change the existing rules, it does not make it better, it's just an additional requirement, an additional allayer that is -- an additional layer that is necessary to help us flatten the

curve. so far you've been doing an amazing job. so many people in the city doing an amazing job of keeping your distance, following the order, respecting one another and your space. and we want to continue is that and we're just adding an additional requirement that will also help in this effort. speaking of staying at home, i just want to remind people that during 4-20, we are going to be add golden gate park. we're going to fence up golden gate park. we'll have police officers out in force. and we will not allow any large gatherings of any kind at golden gate park. so i am asking you to stay at home for 4-20. it is not going to happen at golden gate park. so, please, follow this order

and not just as it relates to large gatherings for 4-20, but for any other large gathering. i just want to remind people, for example -- and i talked about the choir where they practice social distancing and they had rehearsal and 45 people were infected and two died. situations where people and families have gotten together anyway and only to discover that they are now infected with the coronavirus. this is real. it can hit you at any time. and even if you don't care, if you get infected, please care about your family members and the other folks that you come in contact with. you know, i always bring this back to my grandmother who raised me. there is no way that if she was still alive today that i would want to be the reason why she was infected or i would want anyone to infect her because of being irresponsible in this effort. so just keep that in mind.

so many people are counting on us to do the right thing. stay home for 4-20. don't come to san francisco. we are not welcoming any large gatherings of any nature, not just during 4-20, but any other time as long as the stay-at-home order is in place. thank you, all, so much for your understanding and your cooperation. i want to also take this moment to talk about a few expanded resources, because we know that our seniors and our disabled population, they are probably struggling in some instances. they have neighbors who are looking out for them or family members or folks volunteering to run errands and do grocery shopping, but the fact is they may need to take essential trips. for health reasons or what have you, they may need to go

somewhere and they're concerned about getting on the bus and they're concerned that because they're part of the vulnerable population about getting around the city and there are mobility challenges that exist that make it difficult to do so. the sfmta has created an essential-trip card program which provides reduced cost taxi trips for older adults and people with disabilities. so while this is an important resource for people who may have limited mobility and who don't have other transportation options available, with this program, people can get a card that allows them to take 2-3 trips per month at 20% of the cost of a regular fare. so, for example, if the fare is $10, then the person only pays $2, which is really incredible

for our senior population and those who have disabilities. we want to make sure that transportation for essential needs or things you may need to do, that it's not a barrier during this time. it's important that we provide creative solutions for our vulnerable populations. and that's exactly what we're doing with this program. if you want more information, please call 311, or you can visit the sfmta website. we are here for you and we are here to do all we can to take care of the residents of san francisco. i want to, again, express my appreciation to each and every one of you. it is the people of san francisco that are following the directives, cooperating and doing the best that you can -- you're the reason why san francisco is a model for so many other cities to follow.

you're the reason, your cooperation. and i want to be clear that as difficult as i know it is for you, i know that we have parts of our communities that are not complying with the orders that we put forth, whether they are being defiant or they may not have the mental capacity to really understand and follow the directive, there are challenges we know that exist with people who aren't able to follow the order. again, we are going to do everything we can to get people to comply, but the fact is, what all of you are doing, how you have all participated by following the order, has put us in a great situation, but we can't let up. we can't let up because the fact is, sadly, 20 people have already lost their lives. we have over a thousand cases in our city and growing.

and we can't let up because that could mean the possibility of other people getting infected and seeing the numbers surge completely out of control. that is the last thing we want. and that is why i want to remind you as the weekend comes, make sure that you are keeping your distance from people who are not a part of your household. make sure you're not making this one-time exception of getting together for a dinner party or any other event. make sure that you are using the telephone or other resources to call and check on family members to make sure that their mental health and well-being is okay. but we need you more than ever to continue down this path so that we cannot only flatten the curve, but make it nonexistent. thank you, all, again for your cooperation. at this time i would like to introduce the director of the

department of public health, dr. grant colfax. thank you, mayor. thank you, mayor breed. i'm grant colfax, director of health for the city and county of san francisco. as we work together across the city to flatten the curve, and even as we all do our part and

even as we see signs of progress, i want to acknowledge the grief, anxiety and perhaps for some even anger that we are experiencing during these unprecedented times. the department under the direction of the mayor with other city departments, with key community stakeholders, and from people like you, the department is doing all it can to address and mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. in doing so, the department of health will always listen, welcome feedback and strive to refine and improve our response. this is particularly important as it becomes increasingly clear

that the coronavirus will exploit longstanding challenges and disparities as it spreads, whether this be related to other health issues such as mental health and substance use disorders, or broader inequities, such as homelessness, housing challenges, or income disparities. this is why we must continue together to be unified and vigilant to slow the spread of the virus. and to make difficult decisions and to prioritize our actions. we must continue to follow the science, data and facts as we move forward together. i would like to provide an update on the data, including

city-wide cases as well as at the jail, the msc south shelter and laguna honda hospital. today as the mayor said there are 1058 san francisco residents with confirmed cases of coronavirus. out of a total of 10,077 tests reported. sadly, 20 people have died and i send my condolences to their families, loved ones, community and friends. there are 91 patients with coronavirus hospitalized across the city and about 30% of these cases are in the intensive care unit. our hospitalization numbers for covid-19-positive patients have been holding relatively steady for the past week, which is welcome news, but again, that

could change at any time, especially as we expect to see continued outbreaks. across san francisco's hospital system today, there are 1,048 acute care beds and 445 intensive care beds available across the city to meet the demands of a surge. yesterday the city had its first positive case confirmed in our city's jail. the person showed no symptoms, but was tested and isolated as part of routine testing of all new bookings that are housed in the jail. a contact investigation is under way. as i reported last week, there was an outbreak of coronavirus

at msc south, the city's largest homeless shelter. as of today, 95 guests and 10 staff there have tested positive for the coronavirus. and at laguna honda hospital, there are 19 confirmed cases of coronavirus. 15 of the confirmed cases are among staff and 4 are among residents. there have now been no new cases among residents since april 7th. all the residents are in good condition. and, again, we are doing everything we can to reduce the spread of the virus in our community, protect vulnerable population, health care workers and first responders. now i would like to provide more details about the new action

that san franciscans -- that we are taking to help san franciscans fight the spread of the coronavirus. because even as we respond to outbreaks now in the homeless community and in long-term care facilities, we are also looking ahead. today, as the mayor announced, we will -- residents and workers will be required to wear face coverings at essential businesses and public facilities and on transit. this requirement is a legal health order and takes effect at midnight tonight. it strengthens a recommendation we made on april 2nd and is informed by the centers for disease control and prevention guidelines. like our shelter in place order and many of our approaches, this is a regional effort.

the face covering requirements have already been announced by sonoma county and several other bay area jurisdictions will announce similar orders today. by wearing masks or face coverings when interacting with other people in public, san franciscans will be less likely to transmit the coronavirus to one another. it is important to understand that today's order is part of a broader strategy to establish new ways of interacting and behaving. this will help us now and it will help us in the future as we hope to be able to relax the stay-at-home order. by then people will already be in the habit of wearing face coverings at the grocery store, in lines, while riding a bus,

taxi, or über. it is likely that we will need to continue to do this for some time, even after we start to emerge from our home. and, please -- and i can't emphasize this enough -- please know and please remember that wearing a face covering is not a substitute for staying at home, staying six feet apart, and frequent hand-washing. the purpose of covering your nose and mouth is to protect other people. face coverings help to stop droplets that may be infectious, even if the person wearing the mask has no or mild symptoms. in other words, my mask -- i want to assure you i was wearing a mask until approaching this

podium -- my mask protects you and your mask protects me. covering your face is a great way to show you care for your neighbors, your friends, your community. we are going to have to continue to work together to slow down the virus and reduce transmission. the virus is still out there, so we must continue to be vigilant. i want to emphasize that the face covering is just one part of an effective response infrastructure. other components include aggressive outbreak investigation, expanded testing, contact-tracing, and adherence to isolation and quarantine orders and continued prevention. all of these -- all of these will be critical in the future to maintaining any gains we are

making due to our current efforts to flatten the curve. there are good signs that we are, indeed, making progress, but we still have a long way to go. thank you for everything you are doing to protect the health of our community. together, every day, we are saving lives. thank you. now i'd like to introduce the director of mta who will make a few remarks.

>> thank you, dr. colfax. once again, my name is jeffrey tumlin. i'm the director of transportation at the sfmta. i have four key points to make. one is a reminder. muni is for essential trips only. this means essential workers and people making essential trips like going to the grocery store, going to the pharmacy or going to seek social services. if you have another means of making your essential trip, please choose to do so. it's very important that we save

seats for essential workers that have no other means of getting to work. the second point -- and this is again to emphasize what dr. colfax and the mayor have said -- if you're riding muni, please wear a face covering. this is incredibly important and again, it is not about protecting your health, it's about protecting the health of the other passengers and our operators. please wear a face mask when riding muni. my third key point is something that the mayor mentioned, which is our new service offering. we know as muni cut back its service to the 17 most essential routes that serve the majority of our riders, that we left parts of the city behind. so my team has worked rapidly this week to develop the essential-trip card. this works effectively as a debit card and if you're an older adult over the age of 65 or somebody with disabilities,

you can order your essential-trip card by calling 311 or going to our website at sfmta..com/covid. the card works for any taxi service. call the cab and use the card like you would a debit card and it gives you an 80% discount on essential trips. trips to the pharmacy, the grocery store or other essential services. at the same time, it supports our taxi operators who have been hit hard by this crisis. we have partnered with the taxi industry to support them in making sure that all drivers have personal protective equipment as well as cleaning supplies for their vehicles so they can make sure the vehicle is clean on every trip. we're happy to have announced this partnership with the taxi industry and hope it will help provide important connections to members of our community who have suffered from the decline in muni service.

my final point is about our muni ambassador program, which we also started piloting yesterday and goes into full effect today. we're having teams of sfmta employees stationed at the main bus stop throughout the system. they're wearing yellow vests, so you can see them. and they're helping passengers with a variety of health-related objectives such as standing six feet apart at the bus stop, making sure that passengers are wearing masks. we're partnering with other departments to distribute masks and other face coverings to our riders. they're also making sure that our buses are not getting too crowded. we set passenger caps on all the buses. we're limiting the 30-foot buses to 15 passengers. 40-foot buses to 20 passengers. and our 60-foot are limited to 30 passengers. what this mean is, you may be

passed up by our operators if the bus is already full. it may also mean if you're not wearing a face covering, that the operator may also pass you up. please be patient with us and wait for the next bus, or if you have another trip alternative, choose that alternative. we're so happy to be partnering with the health streets operation center as well. in order to direct people in need of homelessness services and other social services to those services rather than taking refuge on our muni buses. the sfmta is proud to be able to keep essential workers moving, making sure that the nurses and janitors and cooks and cleaners are able to get to work to keep all of us happy. and we're relying upon all of you to do your part as well in order to keep our passengers and our operators healthy. with that, i'd like to introduce the chief of the san francisco police department, chief william scott.

good afternoon, everyone. i'm chief william scott, the san francisco police department. first i'd like to again thank our mayor london breed for her leadership during this

challenging time and thank our public health director, dr. grant colfax for his leadership. i want to update you on the enforcements efforts of the public health order. with the good weather we've increased our presence in city parks and other popular places where we know people enjoy walking and getting out of the house for exercise. with the park rangers from the parks and rec department, we've been able to educate the public and continue to warn the public to make sure they stay a safe distance away, the six feet that has been recommended by our public health officials. with that, we're still enforcing where enforcement is appropriate and i'll get to that in a minute. as i stated before, our officers found that the vast majority of the public in san francisco have been compliant. i'd like to reiterate what mayor breed said a little while ago. we also would like to thank the members of the public who have

vastly been compliant with this order. there are still some challenges and we continue to work through the challenges, but the men and women of the san francisco police department want to be part of the solution and we are here to help and help keep our city healthy and safe. with that said, our citation has not changed from the last press conference on wednesday. we still have nine citations in connection with violating the county's public health order. we have issued a number of warnings for the non-essential businesses since wednesday and that continues. also we are still receiving calls regarding social distancing at essential businesses. i must say most of the businesses, the majority of the businesses for that matter, have been compliant with that. in terms of crime, we are still where we were as of wednesday. same report. our total overall crime, we have

25% reduction which equates to 130 fewer crimes than the week before. and that breakdown is a 29% reduction in property crime, which equates to 130 fewer crimes, and a 0 change for our violent crime. so we are exactly the same as we were the week before on violent crimes. compared to march 31 through april 5, the third week of this reporting period, we're still seeing overall decreases in crime. that's both year-to-date and week to week. we want the public and the people who would take advantage of people during this challenging time to know that we take crime seriously. nothing has changed in terms of our enforcement of the law, although, the jails have had to make adjustments and other parts of the criminal justice system have had to make adjustments to keep everybody safe, laws are still being enforced and we will

make arrests and working with the sheriffs and the sheriffs department, they will accommodate violent offenders and people who threaten public safety. so we want to make sure that message is reassured. that the public knows we're out there and we'll continue to be out there. we're still seeing some challenges with burglaries. and we're working through that. with that, i'd like to thank partnership with the district attorney and his team at the district attorney's office. we've made a number of arrests and the district attorney's office has charged looting charges. i would like to thank them for their attention to that matter. this week i also want to give a shoutout to our dispatchers. this is basically national dispatchers week. our dispatchers work 24-7 to

reassure the public when people call and sometimes the most difficult times in their lives, those dispatchers are there to reassure them that things are going to be okay as much as we can make them okay. they do a phenomenal job. they're by our side and we want to reach out and thank them for the work they do in this challenging time as well. also, this week is actually the crime victims week and it's a time to remember those survivors who have lost their loved ones to victims of crime such as murder and other violent crimes. and i want to reach out to our victims and remind them, we are there for you, the san francisco police department and the city of san francisco will always be there in your time of need. we know this is a time there are normally activities surrounding national victims' week in the state capitol, and those

festivities were not able to happen this week, so we want to let you know, we do remember what you all have gone through and we're there for you as well. couple notes to reiterate about 4-20. i want to, again, thank the mayor for her leadership on this and reiterate what she said. we will be out in full force this weekend, including 4-20, the date of 4-20. you will see officers? the parks, street clothes. you will see us out with the area fenced off. we want to remind people, please do not engage in 4-20 festivities. we can't afford to let up right now. the city is doing well. our public has responded to the calls to stay at home and we really need you to heed to that advice and stay at home. and if you don't follow that advice, we'll be there. and, again, we will cite, we will arrest if we have to, but we'll be there to make sure that

we keep this city as safe and healthy as we can. just a reminder again, please do not engage in 4-20 activities in the city or anywhere else for that matter during this pandemic. with that, i close and thank you again, and turn this over for questions. >> reporter: okay. our first set of questions are for dr. grant colfax.

>> reporter: dr. colfax, the first question is from fox news. today the first antibody test results showed an infection rate in santa clara county up to 85 times higher than the number of people who actually tested positive. for an infection fatality rate of 1.2%, what do you make of the numbers and how might they be used to formulate adjustments to the current recommendation? >> so i think that those data are important and certainly significant. i think it's too early to generalize them with regard to how they'll apply to our recommendations. we're reviewing that study and i'm hopeful there will be other data similar in other jurisdictions that will be produced to help us make more informed decisions moving

forward. as i've alluded to in previous conferences, we're working hard with scientists at ucsf to conduct similar studies to get better data on the prevalence of coronavirus in our community. right now, remember, the numbers are based on the number of people we are testing. it does not represent the total number of coronavirus circulating in the community. those are important data and we are working hard to obtain them as quickly as possible with scientists in the -- at ucsf and other institutions. >> are there exceptions for face coverings in public like kids? how should parents get their kids to wear masks? >> we'll be releasing frequently asked before the order goes into

effect tonight. there will be clear guidelines on how to support your children in wearing masks. i also want to emphasize that in very young children, our recommendation, we strongly discourage the use of masks in very young children. there is a risk of suffocation, so you want to make sure that young children do not wear masks. those guidelines will be provided. children under 12 are not required to wear masks. children under 2, we do not recommend mask-wearing for children under 2. >> reporter: and from shannon lynn, how is san francisco testing homeless populations both in shelters and encampments? >> so with regard to testing in those situations, we follow our policy with regard to testing people in general.

with regard to focusing on people who have symptoms. if people are positive, we focus on doing intensive contact investigation and testing people who have had close contacts or who are otherwise at risk or who show symptoms. this is what we're doing, again, across the city as we continue our number of outbreak investigations. >> reporter: okay. thank you, dr. colfax. the next questions for trent rhorer, human services agency.

>> trent rhorer, human services agency. >> reporter: how are the shelter hotels run? are they safe for nearby neighborhoods? >> thanks for the question. first, let me say that because there has been some confusion. when the city enters into a contract with the hotel, we're taking 100% of the rooms in that hotel. there has been some confusion that we're taking or contracting a portion of the rooms in a particular place. we're not. we have the entire hotel. and we staff it accordingly. specific to the question, individuals who are placed in hotels who need to be isolated or quarantined are -- arrive to the hotel and they're counselled by the department of public

health staff on site about the need to remain in their rooms. in addition, all of the needs that the patients might have when they're in the hotels are met in their rooms. most notably, the food. we bring three meals a day directly to the patient's door. the patient, when they're done, leaves the empty -- or the dirty dishes outside where they're picked up. same with laundry. everything is sort of oriented towards keeping that individual in his or her room in order to satisfy the quarantine or isolation requirements. >> reporter: just iterate, after moving confirmed cases, contacts or vulnerable populations to hotel rooms, are they allowed to leave the room? lastly, are there professional staff on site in each hotel? >> there are professional staff on it in each hotel.

the case of isolation and quarantine rooms, there are clinical staff from the department of public health to support the patient's medical needs. in addition there are hotel operational staff, largely coordinated by the human services agencies. these would be basic hotel operations. there may be nonmedical type staff to support the staff as well. as i said earlier, individuals who are there to isolate or quarantine are counselled at the beginning when they're placed. they're to remain in their rooms. there are wellness checks in the rooms throughout the day, in addition to dropping meals off. so the patients that are there are seen many times throughout the day to make sure they're in their rooms and complying with the directions to remain. >> reporter: thank you. the next question is for director abigail stewart-khan,

homelessness and supportive housing. >> reporter: okay. this question comes from shannon lynn, can you share why there is a delay with placing more homeless people into hotel rooms? >> there