implementation date so we have a bit more time to get everything in place for that. supervisor peskin's ordinance renewing the shelter requiring building owners to provide replacement power and water if shut down for construction work was introduced last month is pending in land use committee. we are keeping an eye on that. the flued plain management ordinance was approved by the mayor last week. we are working to impact this for buildings in the fema flood hazard zone. it is about 66 existing buildings and 200 parcels. we are working on the implementation for that. supervisor safai's legislation to require demolition debris to

obtain permits from department of environment is pending in land use. the hearing to review access and involvement in the building permit process will be heard at tomorrow's gao committee meeting at 2:00 a.m. tomorrow. we have an ordinance supervisor fewer proposed an ordinance two weeks ago to require the rent board to maintain an inventory of residential rental units and report information on those units. this is mainly a rent board issue. i note it because d.b.i. would have some role in providing information to the rent board about buildings. finally, proposition h passed. this is the save small business proposition mostly regarding

planning code issues but it does add a 30-day deadline for permit possessing for certain small businesses, mostly just change of use permits for small businesses. we are working with the planning department and other permitting departments to figure out how to implement that. we will have more to update you in future meetings. i am happy to answer any questions. >> i have some to you. chair. >> no comments at this time. thank you for the report. >> commissioner took please. >> thank you. >> nothing for me, please. >> commissioner jacob. >> nothing. >> commissioner tam, please. >> nothing for me. >> john, i do.

yothe rent board what are we dog with that? >> we have provided information to the rent board about building size, what we have in our system. it is us and the assessor's asss office. there is no real change or impact on d.b.i. operations. we are mentioned in the legislation as providing information to the rent board about building characteristics. >> we are not d.b.i. has no role in collecting the information? >> no. >> i had all of these questions. who collects that information? how do they collect this? i am curious. >> i think my read of it is i

would have to doublecheck. the rent board is responsible for all of the enforcement and collection of this information. >> does it say what it means or does d.b.i. enforce noncompliance? >> no, we are mentioned in providing information on number of rooms and that kind of thing. >> where is it now? >> it is in land use. >> why is it in land use? is there a committee for that? >> i have to doublecheck. >> that unusual. >> is it today or this week? >> no, no. iit is on the 30-day calendar, two weeks ago. i don't have it up in front of

me right now. >> the 30-day calendar. okay. that is good. i will do my own research on it. thank you. >> madam secretary. >> thank you. sorry about that. there don't appear to be any callers. is there any public comment on 7a through d? >> no. >> madam secretary. a point of order. i should have brought this up in commissioner's questions item 4 inquiry to the staff but i missed the slot. is it okay to open that up for one second before we go to approval of minutes? >> i think so. >> if there is no objection by other commissioners. to be quick, i was wondering if

staff could give us insight and it can be done to update me offline on 7 marriott drive on how the difficulties are being experienced there. obviously, i am weighing in here and maybe we can help this gentleman mr. o'connor, kevin o'connor on the there is anything we can help with his mother's property, i would appreciate it. >> i would be happy to put a report together regarding where we are with that and report back to you when we have that generated. >> thank you. >> one correction. it is in budget and finance committee. >> that may beings more sense.

>> my apologies. >> thank you. we are at the next item 8. review and approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of august 19, 2020. >> i may being a motion to approve the minutes. >> second. >> there is a motion and second. who seconded? >> kevin. >> all in favor? aye. >> any opposed? any public comment on the minutes? seeing none, the minutes will be approved. thank you everybody. item 9. is from a motion for adjournment. >> so moved. >> so moved.

>> great. >> all in favor. >> aye. >> we are now adjourned. it is 12:08 p.m. happy thanksgiving everyone. >> thank you all for joining us. as a friendly reminder please mute with your camera turned off to avoid distraction. submit two questions by chat only. submit questions and include name. we will do our best to take questions in the order received

in the q&a portion. we will have intake by e-mailing. welcome, director colfax. >> hi, good afternoon. thank you so much for joining us today. as we head into thanksgiving holiday week, i want to acknowledge those lost to covid-19. although the deaths in san francisco have been lower than other cities, each person who has passed away is one too many. my condolences to their families and loved ones. across the nation we are seeing tens of thousands of lives lost to this virus. in the last two weeks alone, death in the united states increased by 64%. more than 257,000 people have

died. hospitalization rates are increasing dramatically. 50% in the last two weeks across the country, 55% in california. consistent with these increases across the nation and state, we are seeing the local cases in hospitalizations continually decline. many cases deaths and hospitalizations can be prevented if we follow the basic measures that we know prevent the virus. now, let's look at some data. slide one, please. this slide shows how the surge is in relation to prior

increases in san francisco. today 14,600 people are diagnosed in san francisco and resulting in 158 deaths since the onset of the pandemic. as you can see from this slide, we see an aggressive increase in cases week over week. for the weekending november 18, we averaged 118 new cases per day. compare that to the prior week, november 11, when we averaged 95 cases per day. at the beginning of the month, the weekending november 4th, we averaged 73 new cases per day. as the slide shows, we are approaching the surge case rates will likely surpass the average cases per day per 100,000 in the coming weeks. now we are just below 13 cases

per 100,000 people per day. while this is still lower than the national and state average, we are at a critical moment. we cannot let the viwhere yous get so far -- virus get so far ahead we will never catch up. an increase in hospitalizations has followed this increase in cases as we saw in the spring surge shown on the far right in cases on the slide and the summer surge snowbound the middle. indeed, for this third surge we have doubled the covid-19 hospitalizations since the end of october. while our hospitalizations remain low compared to other jurisdictions, at just 54 people in the hospital today, this increasing trend remains of concern. right now we still have enough room in our hospitals to care for patients with covid-19, but

as we have seen across the nation, in the state and as we saw in our earlier surges, this can change quickly. systems could become overwhelmed with patients. if that happens more people will die. let's do everything we can this winter, this holiday season to prevent this scenario. today the state test san francisco in the red tier of the reopening blueprint. we remain one tier down from the most restricted tier purple, which triggers roll back of additional activity and abiding by the state and requires abiding by the state limited stay-at-home order. as this slide shows, we are fast approaching the case count to be

reassigned to the purple tier. tier reassignments may occur more than once a week when the department of public health, california department of public health determines immediate action is needed. we expect to be placed in that purple tier sometime soon, perhaps later this week. now, i want to focus on testing. as we prepared for the ongoing surge. we have taken action to try to slow the spread of the virus. but we need everyone in san francisco to recommit to protecting themselves, loved ones and our community. part of that is our collective use of city resources to fight the spread of the virus. we have a robust testing system

across the city, and, indeed, san francisco is leading jurisdictions in the number of tests performed per day. for instance, just last week we hit a day where we did 9,000 covid-19 tests across the city. we are averaging 6,000 tests each day. unfortunately, the number of tests coming back positive in the last four weeks has increased by 265%. that means just last month our positivity case rate was .81%. today it is 2.15% and going up. but testing at city-run test sites must be reserved for people with covid-19 symptoms or exposure or for essential workers and those without insurance. if you have insurance and need a covid-19 test, please contact your healthcare provider.

by law, if you have insurance or have symptoms, your provider must provide a test. please do not use public testing resources in advance of engaging in behaviors that spread the virus. namely, to travel or gather with people outside of your household. we must ensure that testing is available for those that need it most, those that are sick, have had a high risk exposure and those with no other testing options. noremember captioning only captures the moment of the test. a negative test is not a ticket to freely socialize without precautions. a negative covid test is not a particular kid to mingle with extended family and friends outside your immediate

household. the main reason is that the test gives information about the level of the virus at one point in time. a person could be infected but not have enough virus yet for it to register on the test or a person may become infected in the hours or days after taking the test. a test should be used to indicate that you need medical care, need to isolate. not as a free ticket to act like covid does not exist this holiday season and let down our guard. this is a once in a century pandemic, not the time to throw caution to the wind. this holiday season indeed will be like no other. it is so attempting for us to see our loved ones and to gather with our friends. we simply must stay at home. stay home and celebrate

thanksgiving with the people that we already live with. please do not gather with people from other households, especially indoors. the choices we make this week wilwill determine what the remainder of the holiday season will look like. it will determine whether the winter ahead will be filled with more hospitalizations, cases, deaths or if we are able to beat that surge. you know what to do, san francisco. we know how to slow the spread of the virus. you know what i am going to say again. wear those masks. do outdoor activities, stay physically distanced. practice good hygiene and do not travel or gather for the holidays. we can crush this virus for a

third time. we need to have a bit more patience and a bit more perseverance as we go forward together. the best gift this season is the gift of good health. thank you. >> thank you, dr. colfax. at this time we welcome the director of the office of workforce development. >> thank you, dr. colfax for your update. i am the director of the office of economic and work force development for san francisco. as you just heard from dr. colfax. we are assigned to the red tier. we are carrying with activities same status, same capacity for the last week when we were assigned to that red tier. based on the health indicators that dr. colfax shared, we do expect to be reassigned to the

more restrictive purple tier. when that happens the city will be required to roll back or reduce capacity of several activities within 24 hours. to roll back or reduce capacity of several activities within 24 hours. this will require us to stop indoor operations at houses of worship, movie theaters, museums, zoos and fitness centers. we need to reduce all retail except grocery stores from 50% to 25% capacity. we will need to close outdoor ferris wheels, amusement style trains. at the same time within our around 48 hours being assigned to purple tier we have to comply with the limited stay-at-home order to curtail gatherings and

non essential business activities after 10:00 p.m. we expect this to go in effect two days after we are assigned to the purple tier. you are assigned on monday, san francisco would be assigned on a monday to the purple tier. those 10:00 p.m. restrictions would become activity and enforceable on wednesday, the following wednesday. if we are assigned purple on monday, wednesday at 10:00 p.m. that is when the limited stay-at-home order would be in enforceable effect. additionally, in practice this means that all nonessential businesses will have to shut down operations at 10:00 p.m. with some exceptions. specifically related to restaurants and curb side pickup and deliveries. all nonessential businesses shut down at 10:00 p.m. people may not gather with anyone from other households

indoors or outdoors after 10:00 p.m. people may leave their homes after 10:00 p.m. alone or with members of their household to pursue individual activities or access essential to employment or other services. like i mentioned, restaurants may continue to overtakeout and delivery services after 10:00 p.m. they may not have customers seated outdoors for outdoor dining. at the same time we anticipate that san francisco will largely confine any roll backs to those that are required by the state. i know many restaurants have been reaching out and asking if outdoor dining was potentially something that was being considered as part of purple. the answer is no. we are focused on the limited stay-at-home order and the restrictions that are listed in the states purple tier. the department of public health will be monitoring the health indicators to track how we are

doing and ensuring we are doing the best to flatteten the curve and protect public safety. i want to emphasize our behavior not just businesses or others, our individual behavior in support of our small businesses and support o businesses tryingo support your holiday cheer and how we do that over the next two weeks will dictate the next two months. i want to very much thank the business community for their cooperation, for their diligence and initiative this holiday season. also, i appreciate the questions you have been providing we have been doing our best to answer as the city to serve you to operate safely in san francisco. i know we have been very encouraged by the health and safety measures of the businesses. now we need everyone in the

business community to keep it up, behind full, follow rules, we want all residents to follow those rules of public health guidance, take it seriously, keep on your mask, wash hands, stay socially distant to bring the case count down and minimize the restrictions in place. thank you so much. together we will get through this. >> thank you, director colfax and torres for your time. we will begin the q&a portion. starting with director colfax, please. >> first question. from aaron with the "san francisco chronicle." it sounded like the city is certain last week san francisco

would be placed in the purple tier by today. are things starting to improve or not looks as bad as a few days ago? might we not end up in the purple tier at all? >> i think we should take comfort in the fact we have not yet been assigned the purple tier. if you look at the first slide, you can see the shrin the line t up. we expect to be assigned the purple tier. getting the exact day right is beyond the science, data and fact. we project to go in the purple tier. if you look at the regional map, we are surrounded by purple. the fact we are in red should give nobody reasons for not taking precautions around the holidays with regard to gatherings and outside of people

in the immediate household. we are hopeful to crush this third curve. we expect to be in purple relatively soon. >> thank you. what is the city doing now to prepare for vaccine distribution in near and long-term. >> could you repeat the question. >> from aaron as well. what is san francisco doing now to prepare for vaccine distribution in the near and long-term? >> thank you. it is some of the good news with regard to the vaccine trials in the last few weeks. very promising. it will be months before widespread vaccine is available, according to our federal and state partners. we are preparing for vaccine distribution in the city. we have at our command center an extensive planning team looking

at the opportunities working with key partners across the city, community partners, other stakeholders to ensure that we are as ready as possible. much of the guidance around the vaccine will come from the feds and the state. again, we are doing everything we can to be as prepared as possible locally. an example of that, we are building infrastructure with regard to vaccine preparedness. for instance, thanks to city administrator kelly, we purchased three ultracold freezers to store the vaccine. it can store hundreds of thousands of doses of vaccine. a lot of work to do there both locally, state-wide and federally. i am confident we will be ready

to start vaccine distribution when that time comes. >> thank you, dr. colfax. director torres this is for you. if we move to the purple tier in san francisco, which would mean closing museums. will we only have 24 hours to close operations? >> yes, that's correct. we know that is a burden. we are glad you are asking that. plan effectively. yes, you will only have 24 hours. for example if we were notified on monday within 24 hours on tuesday those activity would no longer be permitted under the purple tier. >> thank you. at this time that concludes the q and a portion for today. thank you both for your time. any remaining questions, please feel free to respond to dem

press at sfgovtv. that concludes today's press conference. thank you. >> thank you.