. >> mayor breed: good morning, everyone. i'm san francisco mayor, london breed, and i want to thank you for being with us today, to provide an update on covid and the election and halloween in san francisco. we have 12,320 cases of covid total since this crisis began. 37 hospitalizations, 147 people have sadly lost their lives. san francisco has really stepped up its pace around its testing. we have been doing around 5,000 tests a day, which is absolutely incredible. right now our positivity rate is 0.89 and i know that so many san franciscans have been hearing the stories about how great san

francisco has been doing in fighting the virus, but the fact is we're still in the midst of a pandemic. so today is just a reminder that not only are we doing well, we are starting to see a slight uptick in the number of hospitalizations, which puts us in a situation where things could possibly get worse than what they are. it's just a reminder. in places like france and germany, they've had to make adjustments. france is in lockdown again. and germany, which has been a model in the rest of the world, is looking at restrictions. it's not just what is happening here in the united states, it's still challenging all over the world. it is just a reminder that we are in the midst of this pandemic. as a result of some changes that we've seen in the numbers, what

we will have to do as a result is put a pause on some of our reopening efforts we have for next week. let me just say that san francisco is in a good place. we are in the yellow tier. as a result of being in the yellow tier, we made some very conservative choices around our reopening efforts. our reopening and the decisions that have been made focused on when we were in the orange tier because we know that the more we open, the more people are moving around, the more possibility there could be of spread. and the last thing we want to do is go backwards or tell a business or a school or someplace that they can open and then tell them they have to close. so we are proceeding with caution and what that means is that some of the decisions we

made will still move forward, the ones that are already in place and a few more, but others will need to take a pause until we see improvement in the numbers. what will remain closed, indoor pools, bowling alleys, locker rooms and showers at fitness centers. the capacity will stay at 25%. we initially talked about increasing capacity in restaurants from 25% indoors to 50% indoors. we unfortunately are going to need to put a pause on that, but we will leave 25% intact. non-essential offices will be able to open at 25%, which they've already done and we will keep it at that. so capacity staying at 25% includes restaurants or indoor worshiping places, churches, religious facilities, indoor

museums, zoos, aquariums, movie theatres which continue without concessions unfortunately. what's coming -- some places that will still be able to reopen include indoor dining at museums at 25% capacity, expanding indoor film production and additionally live performances with up to six performers with a drive-in setting. i know these are nuanced and complicated in some ways, but if you have any questions and you want to know how the policies relate to your particular industry, please visit the department of public health website. it not only provides a list of what is opening and what can and can't open, but also guidelines that will allow people to make a

decision of what makes the most sense to move forward. remember, we are still in a pandemic. we are tired of covid-19, but covid-19 is not tired of us just because we are tired of it. so it is still here and present. we see it in the increased number of cases every day and in the number of people who are sadly hospitalized. and we definitely feel it when someone loses their life. it's important for us to keep that in mind. what i'm so proud of is what i see in the streets of san francisco, people who are wearing their masks and social distancing, and those spraying their down tables to keep their visitors safe, it's because of you. it's because of your -- because you are following our public health experts and their guidelines.

it's why san francisco is in the yellow tier in the first place. when you think about that, it's remarkab remarkable. we are the second-densest city in the country and we are still in the better place than most large, urban cities. we should be proud. but we also know there is still more work to do. we also know that tomorrow is halloween. halloween is my favorite time of year. there are those making plans. i'm going to wear a costume, but i also know that i can't participate in any parties or large events or anything of that nature. so we know that this is also important to families. family families have children who want to trick-or-treat and people have parties and want to get together. what we've seen during holidays,

sadly, is an uptick in the number of cases because people have chosen to come together. these parties and events and gatherings could become superspreaders. it takes one person to infect all people who attend a party. that's where we've seen numbers increase and in the past. i just want you to be mindful because even though this year will be a sacrifice, the sacrifice is worth it because it means that we can get our kids back in school sooner and we can get our economy going faster. the more that we sacrifice now presents a better opportunity for us in the future. this is going to be a tough halloween, i know, but i know that we can do it and there are creative ways that you can participate in a number of programs. there is a virtual halloween contest that i'm going to be attending and it's supporting larkin street youth services and

cindy lauper is performing and it's going to be online. there are so many creative ways in which you can celebrate. restaurants are still open. the shared spaces program and people's ability to dine outdoors social distancing from one another has been a huge success in our city, supporting our restaurants and small businesses, while continuing to follow the health guidelines to keep people safe is critical. so let's be creative, let's be safe. look on the department of public health's website for some guidance for some things you can do with your children, with your families, with your communities. but more importantly, let's not take this as an opportunity to celebrate and to go out and to party because it could end up putting us in a worse situation than we are today. so the other thing i wanted to talk a little bit about also was

election day. election day is on tuesday. and i want to thank all the voters who have already voted and who have encouraged those who have not cast their ballots yet to make sure that you vote. and we know that we're not sure what's going to happen with this election, but we want to encourage people to watch from home or with friends based on your groups of folks that you interact with on a regular basis in your families. we know that people like to go out and a lot of the bars are closed still, but make sure that you keep that in mind, that we're still in the midst of this pandemic. we're not sure which way this election might go, but our city plans to be ready for any situation. ultimately, when you have large gatherings, when people come

together for any reason, that puts us at risk. please keep that in mind on election day and operate under precaution and safety. i also want to talk a little bit about our schools. this has been at the top of so many people's mind. it's been not only frustrating, but very sad that so many children in this city are still not back in school. we've had over a hundred applications from private schools, and we're still having some challenges with getting our public schools to a place where they are planning to open. dr. matthews and i and my office have been in close contact because we are here to help. we are here to help the unified school district and get schools open sooner rather than later.

i'm so grateful they're willing to work with us. they've reached out to evaluate the various facilities to make sure that they meet public health guidelines. we're also looking at how we're going to implement the testing that they want to set up to ensure safety within their various locations. so we think that working closely with the school districts, using all the resources from the city that are at our disposal is going to support them and get us moving our city a lot faster. we sadly see the achievement gap grow. even though there are some incredible fathers out there trying to do their part, we know that this burden of going to work and trying to socially distance and also take care of your kids while they're doing this distance learning is having a tremendous impact on mostly women in this city, which is

further creating a challenge around inequities that continue to exist. there is so much at stake here and that we continue to do. i want folks over the weekend and on election day to keep that in mind. you might not want kids going to our schools right now, but think about them and their experiences. let's try to do our part, whether we have children or not, whether we have elderly parents or not, whether we lost our jobs or businesses or not, because what we do by making sure we're wearing our mask and washing our hands and keeping our distance and avoiding large gatherings and parties and all the other things that we enjoy, what we're doing is we're setting our city up for a better future sooner rather than later. that's what this is all about.

thank you all so much for your cooperation. we'll get it done. i know this weekend is nice, but again, please do everything you can to stay safe and follow our guidelines. with that, i want to introduce dr. grant colfax who will provide an update around the challenges that exist in the department of public health. again, if you have any questions about halloween, any questions about elections or election day, if you have any questions, please visit sfgov.org or the department of health website. thank you so much and have a great day. with that, i want to introduce dr. grant colfax.

>> good afternoon. i'm grant colfax, director of public health for the city and county of san francisco. thank you, mayor breed, for your leadership during this pandemic. i want to reiterate mayor breed's thanks to the citizens, the community of san francisco, for everything you're doing to slow the spread of covid-19. you know, my office across the street here is right next to the polling center where people are going to vote right now.

on my way over, i saw san franciscans exercising their right to vote and doing it in a safe way, wearing masks, social distancing, using good hygiene. thank you. today is not unexpected with regard to our pause in reopening. since we've been removed from the state watch list on september 1, we have had a consistent path of increased activities. we have employees returning to offices at limited capacity. students returning to in-learning classrooms. indoor dining and playgrounds being used. this is, indeed, good news and this is progress. but, as our activity increased, we realized we new and expected

an increase in the infection is likely. we have been and are prepared for this. overall, san francisco continues to do well, but we have seen an increase in case positivity. we want to pause on riskier activities because we do not want the virus to get ahead of us. because, as we have seen in other countries around the world, when the virus gets on top of ahead, you can't catch up. and we, all of us together, have done a great job of not letting the virus get too far ahead. from the onset of this pandemic, we have closely monitored our local data.

we have monitored the spread of the virus so we can slow the spread of the virus and sustain the progress we've made. san francisco, we have avoided massive surges and crushed two curves, the first one in the spring and the second one in the summer. and the data are once again, as i told you this summer, the data are telling us it is time to pause. we are working to extend the time before we reopen the next phase of indoor activities. the reason for this is because in the last two weeks our case rate has gone from three per 100,000 of population to four. that's a 25% increase. that might not sound like a lot,

but when this virus takes off, it takes off quickly, unless again we take efforts to slow the spread. in addition, our hospital numbers are increasing. they've increased in the last two weeks from 23 to 37. low numbers, the good news is our hospital capacity remains good to take care of people, but that rate of increase is concerning. as a result, we have a shift in our key local indicators in keeping the healthcare system stable and managing the current rate of infection. that hospital rate of increase is in the red and our case rate has shifted at the local level from yellow to orange. we have also seen a 38% increase in cases in california and a