we're here at vericio is because the owner, wherever she is, there you go. janet clyde, she took it the extra step. she took a lot of heat for it. she said i want to keep my customers and my employees safe, so i'm going to do this despite how challenging it was. how it impacted her business because she put the health and safety of the people of this city and her customers and her employees before anything else. that's what being a good san franciscan is all about and so we appreciate you letting us be here at this historic location to recognize that we really are in this together. and because this delta variant

has been so brutal i don't know about you, but when the virus first happened and over that time period. i knew less people at that time who actually got the virus. and there are a bunch of folks that i know how who have in some cases been vaccinated that have contracted covid because the delta variant is just that more contagious and we are not out of the woods as it relates to covid, we're still going through it. yes, we're sick and and tired of it, but it's not tired of us it's still coming back with a vengeance. we're seeing 263 new cases and those people are younger in some cases than what previously

existed and dr. cofax said if i'm going to get covid anyway. it's a difference being home every day or being in a hospital on a respirator where you can't breathe and this is real and it's hard to understand when you don't complooeld see it, but in some cases they can't talk where in this past year and a half, there have been people who died who have not been able to have funerals. when we think about those sorts of things, how can we not do our part to get better, to get vaccinated to make sure we're protecting one another. to make sure we're protecting our children because they can't

get vaccinated. so why are we here today? well, part of it is we're taking our steps around vaccinations just a little bit further and starting august 20th, you will need proof of vaccination in businesses for your customers in high contact areas like bars, restaurants, clubs, theaters, entertainment venues. indoor gyms and fitness and large indoor events with more than a 1,000 people. by october 13th, employees at these establishments must be vaccinated as well. all of the employees need to show proof of vaccination by october 13th to their employer. now, to be clear, this will not include people or kids who are

under the age of 12 because they can't get vaccinated. so what we don't want folks to think is a family of four that you can't go to a restaurant, you can. because we know that your children cannot be vaccinated and will not have the ability to show proof, but the parents will need to. and, this does not impact those who are coming to pick up to-go orders. a lot of folks who do the deliveries. so this won't impact that. as i said, why are we doing this? it's to protect the workers. it's to protect kids. it's to protect those who can't get vaccinated. it's to make sure we don't go backwards. it's to make sure that i never have to get up in front of you and say i'm sorry we just re-opened and now the city's closed again because we are seeing too many people die.

so to find out information about getting vaccinated go to sf.gov/vaccinated. you can call if you have any questions or need additional information, but this is an important step towards our recovery. i saw on the news hamilton just opened and people were there with smiles on their faces. underneath the mask, i saw the high cheekbones. i know you guys know what that looks like and it felt good. i don't know about you but when i went out to asia sf, the

women who performed there to be out in a city, to go to a restaurant, to see people again, there was a time we could not do this, so if we want to continue down this path if we want to make sure people are healthy to make sure we're in a good place as a city from a public health perspective so that our economy can really recover to its fullest extent, then we all have to do our part. we need to get vaccinated. we need to make sure that we are respectful to the businesses that ask us to put on our mask, or to produce your vaccination cards. we need to continue to have grace as we deal with one of

the most and count your blessings and let's make sure it isn't anyone else in the future because that's what this is about. making sure that now that we have a vaccine that we take full advantage of it because that's going to make the difference for us. and i want to thank a couple of folks here joining us including rodney fong from the san francisco chamber. thank you for being here. sharky laguana, thank you for your work and advocacy. thank you. and we have a couple of other folks joining us. i think ben blyman is going to

say a few words representing the bar owners here today. you know, it was not -- asia sf is somewhat like a bar. it's a bar, performance, food, they have it all. so it's like the perfect bar space where you get everything. anyway, ben is here to talk a little bit about that. mary ellen carol is here from the department of emergency management to answer any questions. and, i think um, who else is here? like i said, it was a long night. and, right now, i'm going to call up dr. grant cofax to talk a little bit about the specifics of our health order, what the plans are and just thank you all so much for being here and thank you all for continuing to do your very best to comply with these very complicated sometimes numerous health orders, but they will keep us safe and they will save lives. thank you so much.

well, good morning everyone. and thank you, mayor breed, for your steadfast leadership. as we continue to navigate covid-19 as a city. and thank you, janet, and visuvio for your important efforts as we recover from this pandemic. and i want to thank our acting health officer who worked hard on these orders and for director marry ellen carol for your ongoing partnership in this response. the business community has been an important partner in our efforts ever since the early days of the pandemic which is now well over a year and a half. from capacity limits to masking requirements to everything in between, you have responded and adapted to the many new ways of doing business throughout. and, for that, we thank you. i look out at all the new

outdoor dining pots and walk-ups these days and i'm so pleased to see the way san francisco has adapted and come bang to life. even in just the last few months. the difference is palpable. our ability to adapt, change and respond will service well because even as we beat back this disease. we also know that covid-19 will be with us in some capacity for the foreseeable future. we are now in a new phase of the pandemic. and even as we see a surge of cases, we have the powerful tool to fight this disease and keep ourselves and each other safe. the vaccines. let's use them. the updates to our safer return together health order are designed to make sure we can continue to keep businesses open and enjoy our lives in san francisco safely even as we

face the delta variant and other variants to come where people are at close range. breathing heavy indoors. it's simply common sense. it makes sense to require vaccinations in indoor settings where food and drink is served like restaurants and bars and where aerobic exercises happen in gyms and fitness establishments and where many people gather like at indoor venues of a thousand people or more. we believe we will continue to make a major difference in lowering the spread of covid-19 with the common sense solution of vaccines. the vaccines continue to work remarkably well especially and dramatically lowering the risk of hospitalization and death from covid-19. the vaccines are our armor. they are our life jackets.

they are parachutes. d.p.h. launched a vax to you campaign last week that will bring a mobile vaccination team to your home or business if you have at least five people ready to get the vaccine. we ask businesses to please take advantage of that and you can go to sf.gov/vaxtoyou for more information. you can continue to get the vaccine from your health care provider or at a farmee or many of our drop-in sites across the city. we are also ready and in hand to have the new tools to implement the new vax even requirements. while today's announcement

applies to these specific kinds of business, we also encourage all businesses in the city to do their part and require their employees and patrons to get vaccinated as soon as possible. for anyone who is on the fence about getting vaccinated or hasn't made the time, we very much hope that the incentive of eating at your favorite restaurant in san francisco or grabbing a drink will remove any barriers that you may have for getting vaccinated. the vaccine is safe, effective, and appointments are readily available. and, just a reminder, that even if you've already had covid-19, we in the city strongly recommend that you get fully vaccinated. thank you, and, with that, i'd like to introduce ben blyman, head of the san francisco's bar owner's alliance and an early leader in requiring vaccinations at bars and encouraging others to join.

ben, thank you. >> thank you. first of all, i'd like to say happy birthday to mayor breed. happy birthday. second of all, i just want to thank mayor breed for her leadership throughout the pandemic. for many of us, it's the worst year and a half of our professional lives and i can't say how grateful we are to have somebody in the highest leadership of san francisco who actually cares about us and doesn't just help us when it's politically expedient to do so. time and time again the mayor's shown she truly cares about our issues and is willing to go to the mat for us. thank you for that. i just wanted to call that out. about three to four weeks ago, the san francisco bar owners started to notice alarming cases of break through infections with staff members of ours. these are vaccinated individuals working in bars who suddenly were coming down with

covid, thankfully, none of the cases were serious. there were no hospitalizations but it was enough to give us pause and have a robust conversation. in that conversation, three things came up that i noticed and it was a very robust conversation. one was how scared we were for the health of our staff members. specifically, we have a lot of staff members who have young children. we have a lot of staff members who take care of elderly parents and the idea they could bring something home and put them in danger was scary for us and real. we have a sacred obligation to our staff members. we know that. we feel that way, and that was really first and foremost in our minds. the second was the impact it was having on our businesses. if somebody comes down with covid, even if they don't go to the hospital, they're out for at least ten days and we're having a staffing shortage already across the u.s., so this has a serious impact on our ability to do business. i myself had to close a bar for

a night because my bartender got covid at a different job of his and we were unable to find coverage. and the third thing that came up was the frustration that we felt as a community. for the first year of the pandemic, we were fighting an uncontrollable virus. it could be sort of managed, but it was kind of out of control and we kind of had the sense of fatalism. but that was no longer the case. and the bar owners were veryis a sievous and it was something that came up and we floated the idea what if we just don't let them inside. after a poll we did, over 80% of our membership responded that they would like to go through with that and they declared we would only allow vaccinated individuals to hang out indoors at our

establishments. in actual practice, it was a little bit of a nothing burger. if anything, almost every single person was happy about t. they were thrilled. they were thankful. they were safer. the pushback we got was online from a bunch of remarkably right wing trolls whose trolling was so bad hopefully i could teach them about how to troll correctly. that said, we've gone through with it. it works. it's helping to decrease exposure to our staff members. we know that unvaccinated individuals are eight times more likely to contract and spread coronavirus and we need to make sure that we keep them from exposing our staff and their families as much as we can. even though there wasn't much pushback, we still kind of felt like we were on an island as a group. we didn't do it thinking other people would follow. we didn't do it to change

hearts and minds. if hearts and minds do change, that's fantastic. but we did to to protect our staff and families. but the fact that san francisco is doing this now is a huge thing for us. we're not alone anymore. the city is making a bold statement if you want to participate in our society fully, if you want to be able to cough into the mouths of other people around you in closed tight areas, you must be vaccinated indoors. the fact that we're not alone is a huge benefit to us and i thank the city of san francisco for going through with this. it's a giant deal for us so thank you very much, thanks for having us. >> thank you, ben. and, thank you to all the bar owners in san francisco. thank you to the vasuvio and janet in particular for your leadership and work and advocacy. as i said, the bars did this a couple weeks ago and the city is following their lead which i think is truly remarkable.

the example that they're setting what we're doing to keep people safe is most important at this time. and, with that, i'll open it up to questions from the press. >> coping with covid-19 with chris manning. >> hi. i'm chris manners, and you're watching coping with covid-19. my guest today is tanya peterson. she's the director of the san francisco zoo on sloat boulevard, and she's here today to talk about how the zoo's

managing during the pandemic and how they're reopening. tanya, thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> i'm really pleased to hear that the zoo has reopened again. that's great news. can you tell us what changes you've made to make visitors to the zoo feel comfortable and safe when they're there. i understand now you have to make reservations, and there's only a limited number available each day. >> we were making changes before shelter in place. fortunately, because we work with animals, and we have a vet hospital on-site, we have the safe coverings before the shelter in place. while we were closed, we made some internal and external changes. the first one, i guess, would be on-line reservations.

you now need to make reservations to visit the zoo, just like your favorite dinner restaurant. that is an effort to slow down congestion. try to keep everything smooth, and we can control the number of families coming in over the course of time. >> that's great. what about the indoor exhibits and the playground. are those off limits now? >> well, they're not off limits, but the playground, we had -- we had started child care program for essential workers even when we were closed, and the playground is used exclusively by our child care programs. so if you can think of the zoo, 100 acres, about a good third of it right now is reserved for child care, so what we do is we have the -- we've got the children in their safe pods. they're with each other for three weeks. they're in a controlled environment, and in the morning, one pod has the playground, we disinfect, and

in the afternoon, another pod comes. all indoor spaces were closed before the shelter in place. the one thing i'm asked most frequently about is the train. we have a 100-year-old train, and as soon as we can disinfect that, we'll get that open, because that's the number one question i guess, when is the train reopening. >> is there a map how you're supposed to walk around the zoo? >> yes. in certain areas, we created a one-way path. we try to make it fun. they're generally in the shape of bear paws and colored -- you know, follow the blue bear paws, follow the red bear paws -- but we've tried to make

it fun. when children have not been out for three months, they were climbing anything and everything. we didn't anticipate that, so we put coverings open water fountains, statue signs. kids had been cooped up, so they went crazy the first few days. more control in place. >> that sounds great. how did the zoo's residents respond to a lack of visitors. did you observe any behavioral differences? >> absolutely. we have some shy residents, gorillas and orangs. we have a male orangutan, he would blow me kisses.

the rhinos, they would come out when i would feed them. >> how does it feel to have the zoo open again to the general public, even if it's a limited fashion? >> it feels fantastic. i'm a mother, and i know it's been hard on kids. to be able to open safely outdoors -- we're one of the few zoos on an ocean, so you've got the coastal air coming through. we see families or self-ascribed pods coming through. it's been great for our staff and for our visitors. it's been heart warming, all the true experiences the first few days. >> clearly. you have a lot of mouths to feed. how did you cope with the pandemic so far? were you able to get some financial assistance, and how

can viewers contribute if they'd like to? >> well, thank you. we received some help, but we burned through that quickly, and we received some financial donations. we burned through a lot of our funding, and we were really feeling it. all of the people who supported us and hung in there, i thank you. you can join as a member. it's a tax deduction.

david attenborough said it best. if the zoo becomes extinction, we all do. in the wild, poachers are getting the best of the wild animals, but i think with the help of the zoo and the community, we can save the animals. >> where can i go if i want to donate? >> you can go to sfzoo.org. you can join, become a member or make a donation. it takes about $30,000 a day to feed all of our 2,000 animals, so you can pick how you want to help. >> well, i appreciate you coming onto the show today,

miss peterson. >> thank you. the animals and i thank you from the bottom of our hearts. >> you've been watching coping with covid-19. for sfgovtv, i'm chris manners. thanks for watching.

>> we hope we can learn more about the current state of covid-19 variant cases and others. let's get through the housekeeping and get started. recording. today's event is being recorded and being live streamed on facebook on facebook, sfgovtv, comcast 26,