reporter stephanie sierra is tracking the latest for us and she is in the newsroom tonight. stephanie: health officials say it is time for a transition as cases and hospitalizations stemming from ee declining. but it is important to point out, the mandates will not be lifted immediately. health officials predict most of the bay area will not meet the three metrics for at least a couple of months. masks of indoors? well, not quite. >> we are adopting shared metrics. stephanie: bay area health officials say before mask restrictions are lifted, counties need to meet three main criteria. first reach the cdc's yellow transmission tier, and remained there for at least three weeks. second, hospitalizations must remain low and stable and at the health officer's discretion. and third, 80% of the county's total population is fully vaccinated, or eight weeks after the fda authorizes vaccines for five to 11-year-olds. why it weeks? >> because it will take at least -- why 8 weeks? >> because it will take at least that long for kids to get their two doses. remember, they are three weeks ap

committee today, and now goes to the board of supervisors for a full vote abc 7 news reporter stephanie sierra explains how this could affect the handling of these cases moving forward. san francisco supervisor catherine stephanie says, there's clear evidence victims of domestic violence are being short-served in the criminal justice system today. she called on police and the district attorney to do more number of cases presented to the da stephanie's bill introduced in may would require sfpd and the da's office to start reporting quarterly to the board of supervisors the cityeptmts on domestic violence cases, and the reporting will include how many calls are made to an iowa one that are domestic violence. it and how many of those calls include a child or a firearm the legislation would also require the number of domestic violence cases presented to the da to be reported along with the charges filed in the outcome of those cases. the bill is coming on the heels of a new report from the family violence council that found 79% of people fleeing abuse and seeking shelter were turned away during th

in the newsroom, stephanie sierra, abc 7 news. kristen: stephanie, california is so vast. what areas is pg&e planning to prioritize? stephanie: they told us the main priorities will be protecting critical facilities like hospitals and fire stations and looking at a variety of factors including existing infrastructure to see where it logistically, it makes the most sense to put these power lines underground. we asked them how many miles of power lines have been installed to date underground, 10,000 being the long-term goal, but they have not received an exact estimate, the company is still assessing that figure, so more to come on that. kristen: stephanie, thank you. right now this area has 38,000 being affected. it is not connected to pg&e's public safety power shutoffs. the utility says it hopes to restore power thereby 7:15 tonight. dan: developing news in southern california where people are dead after a plane slammed into a house in santee, near san diego. you can see the black smoke and the huge ball of fire in this video taken near the site. the fire department says

just click vaccine watch live in the newsroom stephanie sierra abc 7 news stephanie. thanks very much in marin county masks will come off on monday officials say the county has met all the tired metrics and the masked mandate will be lifted at noon on november 1st. the mandate was put into place august 2nd as part of a bay. wide public health response to the surge in cases related to the delta variant. it's the first bay area county to reach the benchmarks including a vaccination rate above 80% marin and san francisco are the only bay area counties currently in the yellow or moderate category. this year covid-19 cases are down and now people are turning up the fun for halloween experts. say the fall holiday is slowly making a comeback to free pandemic levels, even the national retail federation says this year people are predicted to spend more than 10 billion dollars on the holiday the spokeswoman for the halloween and costume. associ. station says compared to 2020 candy costumes and other decoration sales are up 25% 16% of americans plan to take their children trick-

abc news reporter stephanie sierra has the story. most of the bay area inches closer to lifting last mandates, the county that never had one stands by its decision. >> why would we ever do that? stephanie: for months, he said requiring vaccinated people to wear masks did not make any sense, given county data did not support that is where transmission was occurring. this supports more than 10,000 cases more than 1000 -- per every 100,000 people, the highest in the state. stephanie: given what we know about how transmissible virusei how can yous be sure? -- transmissible the virus is, how can you be sure? >> we do contact tracing, and every case we interview would say oh yeah, i went to a party and three other people were also sick. these illnesses are occurring in family and social gatherings. stephanie: it's unclear if the data to prove whether the virus is passing an indoor and -- environments is made available to the public. wouldn't you say it's better to be safe than sorry? >> that's a philosophy. not science. if this mandate mad

abc 7 news reporter stephanie sierra has that story. he bay area inches closer to lifting indoor mask mandates, the county that never had one stands by its decision, despite having the highest transmission rate. >> we ask ourselves, why would we do that? stephanie: for months, he said requiring masks for vaccinated people in indoor environments did not make any sense, given county data did not support that is where transmission was occurring. solano county reports more than 10,000 cases per every 100,000 people, the most of any other county. >> we have higher rates of disease than other bay area counties, but it is not passing in indoor public spaces. stephanie: given what we know about how transmissible the virus is, how can you be sure? >> that's a great question. we investigate every case and do contact tracing. every case we would interview would say oh yeah, i went to a party and three other people were also sick. these illnesses are occurring in family and social gatherings. stephanie: he says the county has yet to receive any data

stephanie sierra, abc 7 news. dan: they have done extensive research. how does the doctor think california should reform privacy law? >> he highlighted a loophole. under current state statute a company needs to have knowledge they are receiving data from children to be deemed in violation. he says many of the third party recipients, including facebook, receive data automatically from apps and services and often look the other way. he says there should be a provision requiring companies to verify the data they collect meets the standards so changes on the federal level but here in california. [bellringing] dan: after taking a dip on monday, the market bounced back. facebook recouped some of its losses from yesterday, rising 2%. the nasdaq gained 1.2%. the dow and s&p were each up about 1%. facebook says a faulty configuration change was behind yesterday's nearly six hour outage. during a routine maintenance job, a command was issued that unintentionally took down connections in the network, disconnecting facebook data centers globally. the outage is the

on that and when you are eligible or if you feel at risk to go ahead and get one, absolutely stephanie sierra. thanks, stephanie. now if you have questions about covid-19 vaccine mandates policies or what's happening. live you can ask our vaccine team. just go to abc 7 news.com slash vaccine and click on the big blue blue box. you see right there. right moving on the united nations climate change conference begins sunday in scotland governor newsom who has made climate one of his defining issues was supposed to attend but this morning is office abruptly said he would no longer go citing family obligations still his team says the california delegation will be effective on this global stage. london with gratitudinberg to here in san francisco today protests were held in major cities around the world. part of a global day of action to bring awareness about global warming ahead of the un climate summit in scotland in san francisco activists use ash from california wildfires to create a mural in front of blackrocks downtown office. they are demanding the world's biggest banks defund. fossil fuels

stephanie sierra, abc 7 news. ama: since the symptoms for flu and covid are so similar, how do doctors recommend we differentiate them? reporter: they are very similar. the main difference to covid is upper respiratory symptoms. for flu look for fever, cough, cold and muscle pain and for covid, it is cough, runny nose, with more of a focus on upper respiratory issues. certainly if you are struggling to breathe. but as always consult your doctor first if you experience any of these symptoms, because it can certainly be easy to mix them together. ama: thank you. dan: netflix employees walk off the job. the changes they want as the process the company's handling of the new dave chapelle comedy special. ama: and more efforts to end gun violence in oakland. the bennetts really know how to put their wifi to work. whether it's work work. works for me. school work it worked! or a workout. oh i'm working... they've got xfinity, which delivers wifi faster than a gig for all their devices. it's more than enough to keep every

reporter stephanie sierra is tracking the latest for us and she is in the newsroom tonight. tion as cases and hospitalizations stemming from ee declining. but it is important to point out, the mandates will not be lifted immediately. health officials predict most of the bay area will not meet the three metrics for at least a couple of months. masks

stephanie sierra is in the newsroom with a look at some of the reasons that is happening. stephanie: experts say part of it stems from san francisco being such a remote friendly work city, along with the fact that prior to the pandemic the city was coming off a 10 year old in boom. the new construction left more empty space to lease out. getting employees back to the office means a big part of san francisco's economy will bounce back too. we are far from where we need to be. a new report from the vats office demand index that measures demand for office space across the country shows san francisco reported a 17% drop in the past month, figure than new york and seattle. >> it's going to take some time. you're definitely not back to where we were prepared on. stephanie: he is working commercial real estate firm. he says the recovery is partly due to the remote from the work culture. >> we were at the bottom a sickly. san francisco, the bay area, tech companies, they were not in the office where his markets in texas, these coast in the south were starting to go back into an off

here's abc 7 news reporter stefan nist -- stephanie sierra. >> as the bay area faces blackouts for the past three years, it feels like deja vu again and again. what is being done to prevent it? >> it is job one for all california utilities to get better at this. >> ralph is the codirector of the national resources energy program, and international advocacy group, and he has advised leadership at north american utility companies for decades. >> no one wants to be without power for any length of time. >> he says over the past three years, utility companies like pg and the are prioritizing -- pg nde are prioritizing reducing rolling blackouts. >> those affected and how to restore the power quickly. >> according to research over the past three years, pg andy has made progress to get control of the power grid to black out areas only deemed necessary to prevent fire risk as well as enhancing its system inspections to restore power faster. that all means in the long run -- >> over time, the severity of these incidents to diminish -- >> in july, the plans to underline power lines to minimize f

stephanie sierra, abc 7 news. larry: how does the cdc rank solano county compared to the rest of the bay area? reporter: solano is doing the worst when it comes to case rates. to give you an example, solano has nearly double the number of covid cases per 100,000 people, compared to that of san francisco and napa county is a close second. larry: the mass seems to indicate the doctor in solano may be incorrect. but everybody has their own thoughts on this. thank you, stephanie. anchor: cruise ships are coming back to san francisco. san francisco through the end of the year and a record 127 and 2022. cruising is big business. the city welcomed 280,000 cruise visitors in 2019. you might remember, one of the first major covid outbreaks in the u.s. happened aboard a cruiseship that docked in the bay in march of 2020. larry: it's been four years as a devastating northbay wildfires. the ceremony to remember the victims. road to recovery. job growth in the helping hand for businesses still struggling from the pandemic. and

dan: stephanie sierra is in our newsroom.arlier today, you toured the headquarters of summer bio, the tiny lab responsible for processing one fourth of all of california's covid tests. you are here to tell us the company is trying to transform the cost of covid testing. how will they do that? reporter: they launched during the pandemic to help make testing in schools more accessible. along the way, they developed a strategy to not only test the fastest but maintain the lowest price on the market. setting an example of how the state can save some money. when the pandemic hit, it came with a plethora of problems. a big one, covid testing. >> everybody was scared. reporter: the cofounders set their sights on a solution. >> we felt that if you could get people the information to know what their status is, they can make informed decisions. reporter: they created summer bio in may of 2020. diagnostic testing at that time was limited, expensive, and played with slow turnaround times. their mission was to change that. >> we wanted to

stephanie sierra joins us live in the newsroom with a look at what happens next stop -- what happens a handful of experts who have done research

stephanie sierra is in the newsroom tracking the latest. even more allegations uncovered today?one of the tens of thousands of internal documents leaked accuses mark zuckerberg of choosing strategies that were proven not to be effective in addressing instagram's negative impact on children's mental health. the testimony clearly highlighting the company needs more transparency and congressional oversight. >> trust is earned and facebook hasn't earned our trust. ask former program manager frances haugen testified

stephanie sierra has the story. hanie: as most of the bay area inches closer to lifting indoor mask mandates, the one county that never had one stands by it. >> we ask ourselves, why would we do that? >> he is the health officer for solano county. he said requiring masks for people in indoor environments did not make sense. reports in solano county of more than 10,000 cases of 100,000 people, the most of every other county. >> we have a lot of disease, higher rates than other counties, but it is not passing in indoor public spaces. >> given what we know, how can you be sure? >> we investigated every case and we do contact tracing. what we found was every case we would interview would say, i went to a party and three other people from the party are also sick. illnesses were occurring in family and social gatherings. >> he said the county has yet to receive any evidence of the virus passing in any indoor environments. how would you respond to some who say, isn't it better to be safe than sorry? >> that is a philosophy.

francisco this time the victims were a newlywed couple visiting from new york abc 7 news reporter stephanie sierra talked to the husband who says a lot more than just his savings. definitely a lot of money last year thousands of dollars of equipment gone, but the real heartbreak for this couple was it just about the money and insurance costs, but the memories of their honeymoon, they'll never get back. less than 24 hours into jeff and nicole modlocks work trip to san francisco. the newlyweds didn't expect to be returning their rental car like this when i drew drove my rental car and they're like, let me guess fisherman's wharf i'm like that's the fact that you can just guess that. blows my mind their blue rav4 smashed blocks from arcadio studios in fisherman's wharf wednesday when i parked i took my bag and i like stuffed it under the seat. because i thought as long as it's not showing it's not gonna be seen. and it wasn't showing but i i inside the building for five minutes. that was more than enough time for thieves to smash both back windows stealing his bag that had several hard drives and sd

abc seven meteorologist drew tuma is monitoring the winds, and reporter stephanie sierra and laura anthonygies. we will begin with laura in solano county. laura: dad, more than half of the power outages here in the bay area are here in solano county, about 4700 customers without the main issue is the winds. they have been whipping all day. >> this is my little pot of water. it stays warm. laura: may have been up and down this road before, the one where they have to go without power for a day or two, maybe longer. it mea

we want to join stephanie sierra. good morning. stephanie: good morning. the rain is coming down. just in the last five minutes, it is pouring downtown. you can see it's looking more like rapids. there are no downed trees on the side of the creek. there is a lot of debris clogging parts of the creek. public works crews struggled preventing the flooding. meantime, some of the streets were under two feet of water it yesterday. cars were struggling to cross intersection. this was taken along 3rd street and lincoln avenue. we spoke to andrew, who was helping his neighbors evacuate as flash flooding threatened homes. >> go to higher ground. right there. all that property is 30 feet above sea level. it's not a big planet. it was a good enough plan. stephanie: he says many of his neighbors were not ready. business owners who lived in san rafael and the surrounding area for more than 30 years say this is the worst they've seen it. we are seeing a lot of flooding here at the creek. just so you have an idea how significant this is, over a week ago, this creek was considered bone dry. as you

stephanie sierra, abc 7 news. >> back to storm watch. abc seven news is live at the alameda county fairgrounds, where preparations are underway. >> rain isn't something you usually see at the alameda county fair. postponed during the pandemic. >> there is so much that goes into planning this. dampen too many activities, but if a big downpour happens, they will be ready to make changes. >> we are monitoring and following the weather that's coming down the pipeline. there is a plan in place should we need to pivot. >> all day, crews have been setting up the fair. >> there was a little bit of a warning, so it's on our side. >> one of the food vendors says if heavy rain arrives, they will move most of the booths inside. >> we can always put the registers inside. with hot food, it's a little easier with it raining, because people like hot cold -- hot food when it's cold. >> the fair isn't the only event making changes because of rain. the piedmont street pumpkin patch says people won't come by if the rain is heavy. >> this week, the rain has

stephanie sierra is digging into the data.lem in san francisco is that most are not getting them. >> only one in five of their seniors have gotten them. karina: the deputy -- stephanie: the deputy director of health says that these are people who are eligible meaning that anyone 65 and older at least six months out from their primary vaccination series. >> where would you expect the percentage to be? >> it is a good question, we would want it, especially as we go into the winter months, we once those percentages to be well above 50%. stephanie: san francisco has 100 vaccination sites across the city and county including health centers and hospital systems yet many of them saw little demand for a third dose over the past few weeks. >> i think it was at a steady low level, vaccines in general. stephanie: why do you think it is? >> a couple reasons, first of all it was only pfizer that was approved likely moderna and johnson & johnson have gotten approved and because of that messaging people were not sure if they should get a boo

abc 7 news reporter stephanie sierra is digging into the data. cials highlight the importance of booster shots especially for seniors and those , at high risk of covid-19. the problem in san francisco is that most are not getting them. >> only about one in five of our seniors have gotten them. stephanie: the deputy director of health says that these are people who are eligible, meaning that anyone 65 and older at least six months out from their primary vaccination series. where would you expect the percentage to be? >> it is a good question. i mean, obviously we would want it, especially as we go into the winter months. we once those percentages to be well above 50%. stephanie: san francisco has 100 vaccination sites across the city and county, including health centers, pharmacies, and hospital systems. yet many of them saw little demand for a third dose over the past few weeks. >> i think it was at a steady low level, vaccines in general. stephanie: why do you think it is? >> i think there's a couple of reasons. i mean, first of all, it was only

stephanie sierra is digging into the data compiled in the report. of whom based in the bay area, tell us this is one of the most comprehensive studies published to date. one of the most compelling parts not only underscores how deadly the pandemic has been, but when it comes to life expectancy, the u.s. is ranked among the worst compared to europe. a sea of flags, a somber reminder of what we have lost. more than 700 thousand american lives, the equivalent of more stadiums. [no audio] [indiscernible] [indiscernible] [inaudible] >> what do you think -- why do you think the drop is greater in men? >> men are more fragile than women in terms of life expectancy. plus, men are more likely to have gotten this and more likely to have gotten the severe forms. >>>> especially among minority populations. the drop in life expectancy even more alarming. >> if the population as a whole has lost 1.5 to two years, other studies have shown the size of that drop is maybe two or three times higher than that for black and hispanic populations. >> vaccine hesitancy amo

stephanie sierra explain how people there are recovering. >> heavy rain brought more than just high tidenestled right next to a creek on 1st street in san rafael, the water puddling into the basement and the street turning into a river. >> yesterday it was a little river all the way down the street. it was absolutely incredible. >> dennis shea has lived in san rafael for years and says this was the worst he's seen. >> the flood we had in new year's eve 2005, that barely got into my driveway. >> he says some driveways were submerged in more than two feet of water. a similar scene a couple of miles down the road. that downtown was bone dry over a week ago and was close to overflowing. >> around 5:00, we had the sirens going off and the police came by and said you have to evacuate. >> this is as high as it has been in quite a few years. >> the mayor is >> in recovery mode. >>everything is back up and running to speed. people are taking off the floodgates and the creek looks to be at a decent level. ama: let's take a look at the pg&e power outages hat. still a lot of customers without servic

stephanie sierra joins us live in the newsroom with a look at what happens next stop -- what happens next. >> we spoke to a handful of experts who have done research studies and some who have testified about the company before the u.s. senate. these analysts were not surprised by the internal documents leaked and added that it proved what they feared all along. internal documents leaked from a facebook whistleblower revealed the company's own research new changes to its algorithms were incentivizing hatred and polarization. the tech giant facing accusations it did not take action to suppress the negative content over concerns it would hurt usage and dad revenue. >> the first signals began to appear toward the end of the three-year site. >> roger mcnamee meant toward mark zuckerberg and was an early investor in facebook. he authored a book criticizing how the company could have disastrous effects on our country. he said the first signals started to appear following the three years he advised him. >> i wish i had seen it sooner, but when i did see it in 2016, it led me to reach out to

stephanie sierra is live in the newsroom with a look at the importance of getting that flu shot. >> two studies came out suggest we have since we have had such low flu activity resulting in less immunity, this upcoming flu season will be much worse. these models suggest it won't just be more cases, but predict hundreds of thousands of additional flu hospitalizations. whether you are coughing, sneezing or just feel under the weather, it is a dreary reminder that flu season is not only here , but sweeping and fast. >> we predict there are going to be a lot more flu cases. people getting infected, but also people getting hospitalized. >> we will see far more flu cases this winter then covid cases. two new studies recently purchased, not yet peer-reviewed, showed a similar sentiment. one study predicted there could be an additional 100,000-4 hundred thousand flu-related hospitalizations this fall and winter. >> the estimates are on target but it comes with some uncertainty. and the uncertainty around how bad it could be, meaning it is going to be worse for sure than last year. >> how much w

victims of car break-in are some newlyweds who were visiting from new york abc 7 news reporter stephanie. sierra is in the newsroom. she talked to them today and they say they've lost much more than things stephanie. that's right. i'm a thousands of dollars in equipment gone, but the real heartbreak for this couple wasn't just about the be an insurance costs but memories of their honeymoon. they'll never get back. less than 24 hours into jeff and nicole modlocks work trip to san francisco. the newlyweds didn't expect to be returning their rental car like this. i drew drove my rental car and they're like, let me guess fisherman's wharf i'm like that's the fact that you can just guess that. lows my mind their blue rav4 smashed blocks from arcadio studios in fisherman's wharf wednesday when i parked i took my bag and i like stuffed it under the seat. because i thought as long as it's not showing it's not gonna be seen. and it wasn't showing but iut it inside the building for five minutes. that was more than enough time for thieves to smash both back windows stealing his bag that had several hard dr

with them for the future and what's being to minimize the fire risk abc many side team reporter stephanie. sierra is digging into promises made by pg&e to address the problem and if they are being followed, she's in the newsroom stephanie. yes, dan. well, this year p g&e would be implemented specifically to reduce the threat of wildfires enrolling blackouts one of which is plans to underground 10,000 miles of power lines, but experts say that won't be the most cost-effective solution. as the bay area faces yet another threat of rolling blackouts for the past three years. it feels like deja vu again and again, so what's being done to prevent it? it's job one for all of california's utilities to get better at this ralph. cavana is the co-director of the natural resources defense councils energy program and international environmental. advocacy group. he's advised the leadership at north american utility companies for decades. no one wants to be without power for any length of time. says over the past three years utility companies like pg&e are prioritizing two goals to reduce the risk of rolling bl