there was a very good e.m.s. town hall. it was well attended. the e.m.s. system is doing so well that one of our top users of the system is working his way, engaging with his rehab and has reached out to providers to celebrate. i'm proud of what's going on with e.m.s. they're out there all day, all night, all corners of town. we did training with the sheriffs and on to our fire prevention and investigation. we celebrated fire prevention month with our community and we continue to inspect and we're approaching the covid numbers. there were questions about shared spaces. the brief version of that is that it was highly regulated before covid. in june of 2020, the city initiated a quicker permitting process for removable furniture only. these permits were issued and sent out and it spread like wildfire. it became more and more permanent. the inspections are conducted by the san francisco fire department. the fire marshal's office is forward with looking at how that's going to affect the safety of the public and our ability to respond and through their advocacy

there was a very good e.m.s. town hall. it was well attended. the e.m.s. system is doing so well that one of our top users of the system is working his way, engaging with his rehab and has reached out to providers to celebrate. i'm proud of what's going on with e.m.s. they're out there all day, all night, all corners of town. we did training with the sheriffs and on to our fire prevention and investigation. we celebrated fire prevention month with our community and we continue to inspect and we're approaching the covid numbers. there were questions about shared spaces. the brief version of that is that it was highly regulated before covid. in june of 2020, the city initiated a quicker permitting process for removable furniture only. these permits were issued and sent out and it spread like wildfire. it became more and more permanent. the inspections are conducted by the san francisco fire department. the fire marshal's office is forward with looking at how that's going to affect the safety of the public and our ability to respond and through their advocacy

it is based on e.m.s.orp., which is a program that's been extremely successful in the east bay and in southern california. the first time they tried a class, it was mixed, men and women, and it was not successful at all because they do things like trauma counseling, and they really needed separate spaces. and so -- and there were also some other distractions, frankly. so they separated -- they make this men at e.m.s. corp. now, my intent is to have the first-class be men because that's the tried-and-true one that they have done that we're going to bring over here, and then, the second class, i would like to be all women, so that's sort of the direct that we're looking to go in. >> president covington: okay. thank you. i just wanted to be sure that there was going to be equity for young women who might be able to, you know, take advantage of this opportunity. after all, women hold up more than half the sky, so i wanted to make sure that women were in there because they're the ones that usually wind up with

and the folks i want to highlight are our paramedics, our e.m.s. providers.y are the true high rose keeping the entire system going right now because every shift when i go in or when i leave, our hospital is full. the next hospital over is full. the big hospitals in our region that normally will take our overflow on busy weekends, they're all full. and so we are sending paramedics around western michigan, hour, hour and a half in the back of a tin can essentially with covid patients bringing them to other hospitals that have a bed or two until we fill them up. and that's just the reality now. it's been that way for two weeks. it will be that way into the foreseeable future if people don't change their behaviors. >> and did i read correctly that health care workers in your part of the world have been told, even if they've had a close contact with a case they know to be positive, they're still needed as long as they're asymptomatic? >> yeah, that is true and it's been true. and honestly, the number of close contacts that we all have on a regular basis, it would

coordination capability, which includes developing or augmenting operations for coordination with e.m.s. and interfacility transport systems as part of the 911 response s. activities inclu include -- 911 responses. remaining 70% of the grant will go towards the medical surge capability to improve and maintain health care worker readiness for covid-19 and other special pathogens. activities to support this include having the health care coalition and determine supplemental training exercises and resources to assist health care facilities in preparation for patient surge, assessment of hospital preparedness and response readiness for patience surge and to address surge capabilities within our own health care system. we will continue to work closely with idph finance colleagues, state, federal, and local partners to ensure documentation and reporting of the expenditure of the covid-19 response fund and associated workplace activities. thank you for your time, and i'm available to take any of your questions. >> chair fewer: okay. thank you very much. let's open this up to public comment, pl

so looking ahead to this season [inaudible] but also to minimize surge in outpatient clinics, e.m.s., hospitals, and due to flu illness, and also to mitigate increased testing demands due to undiagnosed influenza-like illness. so what is the flu season going to be like this year? are there any takes we can derive from the southern hemisphere, which as you know, their flu season peaks during our summer, so they've already been through a flu season during covid-19. so while [inaudible] in australia [inaudible] on the right side of this graph, australia was doing plenty of influenza testing, which is indicated by the blue line, and finding very few positives of influenza disease, and those are indicated in this graph by the colored -- the colored bar lines, and you can see it was nearly flat in their flu season during our summer. australia saw only 350 flu cases, which is down 99.8% of their flu season [inaudible] and this is thought to be related to the measures that were taken in response to the covid-19 pandemic, including social distancing, masking, border closures, and also an incre

so looking ahead to this season [inaudible] but also to minimize surge in outpatient clinics, e.m.s., hospitals, and due to flu illness, and also to mitigate increased testing demands due to undiagnosed influenza-like illness. so what is the flu season going to be like this year? are there any takes we can derive from the southern hemisphere, which as you know, their flu season peaks during our summer, so they've already been through a flu season during covid-19. so while [inaudible] in australia [inaudible] on the right side of this graph, australia was doing plenty of influenza testing, which is indicated by the blue line, and finding very few positives of influenza disease, and those are indicated in this graph by the colored -- the colored bar lines, and you can see it was nearly flat in their flu season during our summer. australia saw only 350 flu cases, which is down 99.8% of their flu season [inaudible] and this is thought to be related to the measures that were taken in response to the covid-19 pandemic, including social distancing, masking, border closures, and also an incre

so people in healthcare, e.m.s., or if for one reason you need it for your own status.get a test before a major operation, we would want you to have access to that. we have added tier 2 a. we are saying those with barriers to health are a high priority. those populations in high-density living situations, homeless individuals, they all have priority in testing. and the next tier are asymptomatic workers. tier four is everybody else. that's our testing prioritization. the next slide shows where the testing is. we have multiple testing sites throughout the city. the green sites are just the general sites and then the blue sites are sites that you don't have to be insured to go there. so in terms of the city sites that have been talked about, those are the highest-volume sites. right now embarcadero is not only testing the general public, there are specific appointments rdsws and close contacts. we are reserving those. if you are a close contact and require a test that day, that we have the capacity to get you a test that day. [please stand by] >> just to categorize, we ha

so looking ahead to this season [inaudible] but also to minimize surge in outpatient clinics, e.m.s.,ospitals, and due to flu illness, and also to mitigate increased testing demands due to undiagnosed influenza-like illness. so what is the flu season going to be like this year? are there any takes we can derive from the southern hemisphere, which as you know, their flu season peaks during our summer, so they've already been through a flu season during covid-19. so while [inaudible] in australia [inaudible] on the right side of this graph, australia was doing plenty of influenza testing, which is indicated by the blue line, and finding very few positives of influenza disease, and those are indicated in this graph by the colored -- the colored bar lines, and you can see it was nearly flat in their flu season during our summer. australia saw only 350 flu cases, which is down 99.8% of their flu season [inaudible] and this is thought to be related to the measures that were taken in response to the covid-19 pandemic, including social distancing, masking, border closures, and also an increas