>> so much time for set up and breakdown. it's like a party. >> all right. directors, you are now back in open session. in regards to item seven, i will turn it over to council. >> as to item seven there is no action to report. >> all right. madam chair, this does conclude your agenda for today. >> thank you. i'd like to adjourn this meeting. thank you all for your time today. >> thank you.>> i'm district twe

leadership of the department of public health flattened the curve in san francisco. the steps we have taken together have saved lives. one of the reasons the city acted so quickly so early was to

not overburden our health care systems. as the state of california and bay area counties have begun to gradually reopen, we are seeing some troubling signs. we have a seven day average of ninety eight new cases per day. our demand for acute care for covid positive patients has goan each week. today dr. and i are announcing the establishment of our first low acuity medical site.

located a 163. it will open with twenty patients. it's not expected to treat covid positive patients. when i starred this i facility i was truly impressed at the first rate medical facility. the city's ability to confront covid 19 depends on our ability to care for those with all manner of conditions.

sprained angels to heart attacks. other ailments are not stopping just because of the pandemic. opening this facility will shore up our ability for the hospitals to treat covid 19. it is not a drop in acute care site testing location or shelter. please do not visit this location if you are seeking any of those services sm as the district two supervisor i would be remiss to not note the

response to local emergencies. we're an incredible resource and i'm grateful for the partnership with press i hapartnershipwith.a >> good mark morning. i'm director of health. thank you for your support during this unprecedented time.

today like if everyday, i check the number of patient patients h covid 19. unfortunately that number is higher than ever before and continues to climb. that number dropped to just 26 patients six weeks ago. today, it's one hundred and seven. of those one quarter are very sick and in intensive care. across the city we have more than six thousand cases of covid 19. and look, it took us thirty eight days to go from two thousand to three thousand

cases. of half as long to go from three thousand to four thousand. in just ten days we went from five thousand to six thousand cases of covid 19. let me be clear, we are in a major surge of covid 19. the virus is moving fast and more people are getting seriously ill. if things continue, we estimate we'll have more than 750 san franciscans in the hospital by october. plausible worst case scenarios put us at twenty four hundred hospitalizations and eighteen hundred deaths. these scenarios unfortunately

become more likely as each day goes by with the current trend. today, fortunately all patients are getting world class treatment from the most caring professionals sm we wisals. we still have capacity to care for patients. it is good news that our health care system has not yet been overwhelmed as we saw in new york. many are contributing to that by staying home, avoiding gathering, covering your faces when go ting out, washing your

hands sm you are preventing more illness and spread and keep our health care system functioning. our city must prepare for this surge. how many people-that puts us in the red zone of one of our key health indicators. we've been there for over a month. it's extremely sobering that we reached this point. it's extremely concerning. our reopening remains on pause. the main reason we joined the

watch list was because of our rapidly growing rates. our goal is to keep the increase to less than 10%. since january the health department has been planning and preparing for covid 19. we built up the capacity of our health care system. we added testing sites a sites.

today supervisor stephanie announced, we're creating a care site that we hope we will not need. it's located in the presidio but will serve all san franciscans. it will serve patients who no longer need acute care but are not ready to go home. they would have medical medical supervision and care from staff. i hope this day won't come. we hope our hospitals will never need to open the relief that this site represents.

that depends on you. all of us. please. please wear a mask. it's really not that hard. i want to see san francisco open schools instead of medical sites. we want to see houses of worship open their doors. sit in their favorite barbers chair. hug our grand children again. we can make that happen. we still have time to turn this around. if we want those things we can't take chances and hope this virus is not as infectious as the data and facts tell us it is.

everyone needs to behave as though each of us has covid 19. think about that. we know half as many doap don'te symptoms at some period. be careful. every time you wear a mask, socially distance. wash your hands. avoid gatherings. you're moving closer to the day we can live more like we did before march. everyday you take a risk you move us farther away from that

day. we can prove testimon works aga. covering our faces may be the most important. on friday san francisco updated the orders. everyone over the age of ten should wear a face covering. if you're alone in a space that people might use later, cover your face. if you're handling food for other face, cover your face. basically, cover your face. if you're passing someone on the sidewalk, your face must be covered. other things we must do. washing our hand hands, stayingx

feet apart. if you are meeting. meet out side if you can. of course, please you must stay home if you can. short of the vaccine or cure of covid 19 these are the most effective interventions that we have available to us. they work if we take them up and practice these behaviors everyday. you can do this. it's up to us to flatten the curve again. thank you. >> thank you doctor and thank you supervisor stephanie for your time. we'll begin the q and a portion

of this meeting. we have a variety of questions for dr. co lfax. the first question is from the associated press. we haven't seen the devastation in the homeless communities. why do you think that is? >> i think it's a number of factors that so far have helped us avoid worse case scenarios with people experiencing homelessness, we took action early on with our partners and support of housing and with our community seven is agency part mere ins. ensuring that best practices

were rapidly a applied. people had the materials necessary to reduce the spread. other key interventions that we did is make available hundreds of hotel rooms so people experiencing c homelessness were able to shelter in place. over thirty five hundred people have been placed in those hotel rooms. we've done a lot of out reach work on the street. providing hygiene. we had an intense clinical team that provided health care for people before the pandemic. this team has been working around the clocke clock to ensue

people get the best care. it's a variety of actions that we've taken to avoid some of the outcomes we've seen in other jurisdictions. >> thank you, doctor. the next set of questions are from ab c seven. face shields should be worn in addition to face masks. do you for se for see this beina requirement. >> the most important thing is that we ensure in public that everyone is wearing a face covering if they are over ten

years of age. we've been very clear that protecting our health care workers is key. >> how close is san francisco to getting off the watch list? >> we continue to see increases above the 50% hospitalization rates. i can't speculate on how soon. we are in a major surge here and anticipating on average seven hundred fifty in the hospital by october. if we're on and off the watch list what is key is we work to flatten the curve and recommit

ourselves. we did it before and we can do it again. it's going to take the whole community to make this work. >> are social gatherings the major reason for the surge. >> it's a major ko contributor. people should not be using testing to determine whether they should gather. if someone is infected, the virus is extremely contagious. they are contributing to this increase. if you go to a gathering and somebod h