we're also helping our small businesses apply for new rounds of p.p.p. loans that are part of the new federal relief package. we know a lot of our small businesses are closed or are struggling to stay afloat, and we will keep working to find ways to support them in every way we can. we all have a long road ahead. december was a really hard month, and january is not going to be any easier. but, like i said, there is hope. the rollout of the vaccine is something like we've never seen. hundreds of millions of doses will be distributed around the country. this is going to take all of us working together. today we're joined by dr. josh aldler, who is the chief clinical officer of health and vice dean of the school of medicine. the doctor will speak a

little about how ucsf is participating in the rollout of the vaccine. it is important for everyone to remember that the distribution of the vaccine is different from how testing was set up in this country. with test, the federal government basically left it to the local and state governments to figure out, on our own, which is why we created our own city-run testing city, city test s.f., which puts san francisco at the forefront of providing testing in this country. but in an expensive and complicated system that we built from scratch. with the vaccine, the federal government has purchased the vaccine and is distributing them through established networks of state and health care providers. so the vaccine rollout is a lot bigger than the city and the department of public health. but we do have a role to play, and one of those roles is to distribute the

vaccine to our city-run facilities. that includes laguna honda hospital, where over 715 vulnerable residents currently live. the good news is that starting yesterday, working with walgreens, we started vaccinating the resident of laguna honda, and by tomorrow, all residents who want the vaccine will receive it. this is in addition to the over a thousand staff members who have already been vaccinated and more to come. now, it's important, for a moment, to take a step back. often these press conferences, we talk about numbers, we talk in data. we talk in concept, like infection rates and i.c.u. capacity. we say things like, we're going to -- we're taking certain actions to keep the virus out of laguna honda, but la laguna honda is

just a building. they attack our seniors. and people living with disabilities are the most vulnerable. protecting the residents of laguna honda is very personal to me. my grandmother lived there for years at the end of her own life. so i know what those residents are feeling. i know what their families are feeling because they are not able to visit. our fight to keep the virus out of laguna honda has been a fight to keep these people alive, until we could do what we started doing yesterday: protecting them with the vaccine. i want to show a few pictures from yesterday. lathis is a photo of bernadette yee. she is someone who has been living for months and months in the type of facility that has seen outbreaks across this country. she, like so many others, have lived with the fear each and every day, and now she has the vaccine. now she and other residents of laguna honda

are waking up today with an end in sight. this next photo is jasper harris. while many of us had to sacrifice by staying home and limiting interactions, his sacrifice was to be in the facility where no one from the outside has been able to visit. he has had to deal with isolation and separation. thanks to the hard work of the staff at laguna honda, and all of the policies, our department of public health has put in place, he is alive and well, so that he can get the vaccine, so that he can keep on living his life. these are the lives we have been fighting for day after day to save. after months of uncertainty, they will now be protected. they are alive because of public health orders we put in place, because of the staff of the facility who have done their very best to care for them. because of the center of disease control who helped

create a plan to protect this specific hospital. and because of everyone at the department of public health, who has done the workday after day to keep our city safe. like i said, this is a moment, but it's a real moment of hope for our city. and we should be so proud. i know it is hard right now, but remember that each one of these people in laguna honda being vaccinated is someone who will continue to have birthdays with families and visits with friends. they will have more time. they will have months and years ahead that so many across this country, sadly, have lost to this virus. i know it is hard to see, but there is hope. the people of this city have rallied together, even though these truly difficult recent months -- through these difficult recent months, and soon we will push this city

forward. i know that health orders can be hard to follow and confusing. i know that people feel like the rules are shifting and changing and contradictory to one other. and even those who are doing their best aren't quite clear on what is okay and what is not okay. all we are asking is for you to do your very best, to use common sense, and to limit your interactions with others as much as possible, to help get us through this. we know it hasn't been easy. it has been tough on every one of us. and i would also ask that you have some understanding, some patience, and really some grace. we are all going through this together. it has been extremely challenging. so let's just remember the vaccine is here. these are difficult times, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. and i can't wait until we're able to get back together again and able to celebrate without a mask on. that day is coming. so let's get through this together.

thank you, everyone, for all that you've done and what you've continued to do. and now i'd like to introduce dr. adler to talk a little bit about what ucsf's role is in helping to distribute the vaccine. >> doctor: thank you very much, mayor breed. good morning to all of you. let me just start with a couple of comments about the public health orders. ucsf has been a partner in supporting the health orders from the beginning. we know they've been affective in helping to slow the spread of covid-19. we've seen this in our own data for our hospitals and our clinics, but, in particular, as we've examined the situations in other health systems throughout california or the united states, it is imminently clear that the san francisco health orders have helped to keep our case orders, and especially the numbers of hospitalized patients in san francisco, lower than most other urban areas.

and the importance of this is that it has allowed our hospitals to continue to function in a somewhat normal fashion, without becoming overwhelmed, as has happened elsewhere, both in our state and in the country. and that's enabled us to continue to serve all of the patients who need hospital care throughout the pandemic. so we are committed to continuing to work with the city and the county to support the residents through this pandemic. and i encourage you all to do the very best you can to ensure that you continue to comply with these health orders, as they are so important. let me turn to vaccines for a moment. so with the approval of two vaccines in the u.s., ucsf is now very focused on vaccination as supplies become available. i will say that the size and scale of this effort is unlike any we've ever seen. so let me describe briefly how ucsf as one health

system is part of the chain to provide vaccines to the people of san francisco. so ucsf is part of what is called a multi-county system. along with other facilities throughout california. as such, the vaccine is allocated to ucsf directly by the california department of public health. and then the deliveries come to ucsf from the vaccine manufacturers directly, based on the allocation of the california department of public health. it is clear that this is a major and complex initiative, and all of us are learning as we go. what is also clear is that we need to increase the rate at which we're able to deliver vaccine to people. and i believe that from the beginning of the time we started vaccinating two and a half weeks ago, that this is already happening. for example, at ucsf, we're now able to vaccinate up to 1100

people per day, and are working to increase this number even further. at the moment, we are continuing to focus our efforts on vaccinating health care workers primarily, and hope to move on to additional groups in the next few weeks. and i can say that so far the supply of vaccine from the manufacturers and from the state has been able to keep up with the rate at which we are actually vaccinating people, and we hope that this will continue, particular as we increase the number of people we can vaccinate per day. thank you all. i'll turn it back to you, mayor breed. >> mayor breed: thank you so much. and now i want to turn it over to dr. grant colfax to provide an update on where we are in the city with our numbers. and thank you so much for joining us today, dr. colfax. >> doctor: good morning. and thank you, mayor breed. and thank you, dr. adler.

we've always -- the health department has always had a special relationship with ucsf, and we really appreciate the support during this unprecedented time. i also want to express our support for the people in communities and central and southern california, where the covid pandemic is particularly severe, and the situation is dire. and my gratitude to the thousands of people on the frontlines in san francisco fighting the virus every day. including in our hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, community testing sites, and now vaccination clinics. and, of course, to all of you who live and work in san francisco, who have sacrificed so much for nearly a year. a tough year. but i have great hopes for 2021, and i'm sure you do as well. and nearly 12 months into

the pandemic, and with a holiday, i know this has taken a toll on us, including on our mental health and well-being. so i want you to know that if you or someone needs help, it is available. you can call our behavioral health line 855-845-7415, to talk with someone who knows what it is like to struggle with behavioral health issues, or please reach out to your primary care provider or counselor. we need to care for ourselves and each other during this time. i hope we can all commit to that. another hope, of course, is that we will continue to join together to save lives and fight the current surge of covid-19, to vaccinate our residents and workers against it, and to finally overcome this pandemic that has

dominated our lives. the great news is that the vaccine is here. and it is being administered every day. but it will not have much of an impact on our current surge or any post-december holiday surge we may experience in the coming weeks. we remain in a serious and critical position, but our collective actions are making a difference. our cases of covid-19, and unfortunately our deaths due to covid-19 in san francisco, continue to increase, but the rate of increase seems to be slowing. however, at this time we do not know the full impacts of the december holiday. and it is plausible that we could see a sharp increase in cases, followed by hospitalizations, in the next few weeks. let's see where we currently are. can we have the slide,

please. as this slide shows, our number of cases have been on the uptake. this slide shows we are currently at 27 new covid positive cases per 100,000 people here in san francisco. and right now we are averaging about -- could we go to the slide before this, please? this is the slide. this slide shows that we're averaging about 27 cases per 100,000 people in san francisco. and we are averaging about 237 new cases of covid-19 every day. we have seen an increase, as you can see, since december 24th. but the 237 new cases per day is still a drop from about 290 new cases we were seeing in mid-december. but given the infectiousness of this virus, 237 is still far

too many for us to let our guard down. when we stay home, avoid gatherings, stay physically distant, and wear masks over both our noses and our mouths, we will drive this number down. we will keep our fellow san franciscans and ourselves from getting sick, help prevent hospitalizations, and make sure that we are all here for the vaccine. next slide, please. now, this shows the hospitalizations of people with covid-19 since the pandemic began. as you can see, the number of covid-19 -- people with covid-19 who need hospital care continues to climb, as we would expect when the number of cases climb. but thanks to your efforts with regards to precautions, hospitalizations appear to be climbing more slowly now.

but, as with cases overall, we will not know until mid-january how many people got covid-19 over the christmas and new year's holiday, and became seriously ill, requiring hospitalization. that's just based on how long it takes for people to show symptoms and become severely ill with covid-19. it usually takes up to a week, and even two. currently, and unlike many parts of this state, hospitals in san francisco have enough room to care for covid-19 and other patients. locally, we have roughly 35% of i.c.u. beds available. however, across the region, just 5.9% of beds are available. and because our regional i.c.u. bed availability remains well-below the state's threshold of 15%,

we here in san francisco will remain under the state regional stay-at-home order. and, as you know, the situation is much worse in central valley and in southern california. and while we have those i.c.u. beds now in san francisco, it is plausible, with our regional or statewide surge, that those numbers of i.c.u. capacity will drop sharply, perhaps due to a worsening of our local situation, or because of needs in the region and the state. staying home, as hard as it is, is keeping our already strained health system from being overwhelmed. it is saving lives. now i want to talk a little bit about vaccines. we are working with our health care partners, including ucsf, throughout the city, to get as much vaccine into as many arms as possible.

unlike testing, we do not have local control of when vaccine is sent to san francisco. or how much is received. the federal and state government have developed a distribution plan for the vaccine, and the state has defined the prioritization plan, which we must follow locally. that distribution plan shiftships the vaccine directly to health care providers, such as kaiser, ucsf, and d.p.h., which is a health care provider in the city, primarily for people who have medicaid or who are uninsured. with the exception of the vaccine, d.p.h., the health department, gets from the state, we currently have no ability to track the amount of vaccine that is being sent to providers. i can tell you this, that the department of public health, as a health care provider, has vaccinated

more than 6,000 people. most frontline acute care staff at zuckerberg san francisco hospital and laguna honda have been vaccinated, and nearly all paramedics and e.m.t.s have been offered the vaccine. and after today, over 90% of the residents at laguna honda will have received the first dose of the pfizer vaccine. that is great news. given the limited initial supply of covid-19 vaccine, the state has developed a phase approach for which group of people will get the vaccine and when. the first phase, the phase we are in now, defined by the state as phase 1a, prioritizes those workers in health care settings most likely to be exposed to the virus, and most needed to support our health care system. in san francisco, that is

estimated to be over 80,000 health care workers, including nurses, doctors, technicians, environmental service workers, nutrition service workers, e.m.t.s, paramedics, and many, many others. the majority of these workers are being vaccinated by their employer, whether it be the health department, c.p. m. c., ucsf, kaiser, and so far. we are waiting for the state to finalize the next phase, which is proposed to include frontline essential workers, such as public safety, grocery workers, teachers, and those over the age of 75. and we are working with the city's health care providers and pharmacies to scale up vaccine delivery. since the federal and state government are distributing vaccine directly to health care

providers, these partnerships are vital to our collective success locally, as a region, and across the state. we are discussing with our health partners ways to increase vaccination capacity. our goal is to ensure that vaccination is provided to as many people as possible, and as soon as we get vaccine. this is an unprecedented undertaking, the mass vaccination of the entire nation to end the pandemic. we are working hard, but right now vaccine supply remains limited, and many questions remain unanswered with regard to how soon vaccines supplies will meet demand. but please know, and we expect, that everyone who wants a vaccine will get one eventually, and we will work together, as we have done throughout this pandemic, to make this

happen. while we planned for the availability of the vaccine, we still must make a difference in this current surge by supporting each other and continuing to make good and smart choices that we know slow the spread of the virus, such as wearing a mask over both your nose and your mouth when you go outside, avoiding gatherings outside of your immediate household, and physically distancing whenever possible. as we start this new year, nearly 12 months into this pandemic, believe me, i'm counting the days, let's remember that our collective actions have changed the course of the virus in march and july. we can, and we will, do it again. thank you. >> thank you, mayor breed, dr. adler, and dr. colfax.

before we start the "q" and "a," we're going to take a moment for our reporters to submit questions on webex. we'll be right back. >> dr. colfax, are you ready? >> doctor: i'm ready, hello. >> dr. colfax, your first set of questions comes from various news outlets. california has six confirmed cases of the new coronavirus strain. which strain is more contagious and severe, and is there any new and detailed plan to stop spreading the strain. and there is a followup

question: how can san francisco track the possible new strain? >> doctor: so when you're referring to the -- >> the u.k. >> doctor: -- the u.k. strain, we know that the u.k. strain now is responsible for the majority of infections in the u.k., and, as we know, it has been detected across many parts of this country. we have not yet detected the new strain here in san francisco, but it certainly would not be surprising if and when it does get detected. and a number of laboratories, including at ucsf are genotyping of the virus, a select sample, to determine if and when this strain does show up. unfortunately, there is not a lot of capacity to do that, so only a very small member of samples

are sent to la laboratories for this sub-typing, but we would not be surprised if and when it is detected in san francisco or in the region. a couple of things about the virus: while it does appear to be more transmissible than other variants of the virus, it does not appear to be more lethal. and there is no reason at this time to believe that it is somehow resistant to the vaccine. and i think, most importantly, for people going about their lives right now, it just reinforces the need for us to practice those prevention activities, to wear a mask over both your nose and your mouth, to physically distance, and, again, not to gather because with more virus out there than ever before, and with the likelihood that this variant is out there, the things that we may have done in the past that we avoided getting infected, those activities are much

more risky now. >> thank you, dr. colfax. the next set of questions also come from multiple news outlets. why does san francisco have so much more i.c.u. availability than the regional average? even some counties that have had similar public health responses. and the followup is: could you expand on what you said about san francisco's i.c.u. capacity potentially dropping because of needs across the state? >> doctor: sure. i think right now our i.c.u. capacity is really good shape compared to certainly the rest of the state, for a number of factors. primarily, we have as a community so far weathered the worst of surges, so we don't have as many people proportionately in our hospital system because of covid-19 because of all of

the efforts we have invested and the sacrifices we have made. the other key piece right now is seasonally, during the holidays and right after the holidays, there are generally fewer people in the hospital for elective surgeries and so forth, and so we have more hospital capacity for that reason as well. and we have been working very hard with our hospital partners in the city to ensure that i.c.u. capacity is maintained as much as possible. with regard to that i.c.u. capacity being used for other -- for people in need across the state, and even, indeed, across the region, there is a statewide system by which hospitals, regions, can ask for assistance to transfer patients when they run out of capacity, to transfer patients into another jurisdiction. right now, for instance,

we have more patients in our i.c.u.s across the city who are from outside of san francisco. and while we have care available and people need care, it is the moral and ethical and right thing to do to provide that care when asked and when needed. and, again, we are watching that number very careful -- our capacity very carefully because as the central and southern part of the state continue to experience catastrophic situations, and as the region has fewer i.c.u. beds, we would expect our local i.c.u. bed capacity to start going down as well. obviously, i hope that doesn't happen, but it certainly is plausible at this time. >> thank you, dr. colfax. the next set of questions, again, come from various outlets. and it's a two-part question. how many vaccine doses has san francisco received

from the state, and of those, how many doses have been administered. and a followup: how often is san francisco receiving vaccine doses? >> doctor: so dr. adler mentioned the multi-county entities, kaiser, and others are receiving the vaccine allocated by the state. we don't have those numbers. right now the state is working on data systems to have that visibility, but i don't have those numbers, unfortunately, available. they have not been made available to us. i know the state is working very hard to get those numbers to local jurisdictions. what i can tell you is that the health department has distributed -- has -- has delivered 6,000 vaccines to people in our

system, the frontline workers at zuck ber zuckerberg hospital, and our e.m.t.s, and others. so we are distributed 6,000 vaccines. d.p.h. received 30,000 vaccines that were distributed to these other entities across the city. after that, the state switched to the small county entities distribution system, and we do not have those numbers available at this time. >> thank you. again, the next question is from various news outlets. has san francisco hospitals had any excess supply of vaccines? and if so, how have they determined how to distribute them? >> doctor: well, i wish that were the case. i can say we are pushing vaccines out into a