Coronavirus Pandemic: San Francisco Officials Report 43 New Cases, Second Death
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- With more testing San Francisco health officials announced Thursday their number of cases had jumped by 43 and there has been a second death.
The fatality was the 26th in the Bay Area on followed a day on which neighboring San Mateo County announced four new deaths. Three of those coronavirus victims were described as elderly adults and the fourth was the second resident of the Atria Senior Living facility in Burlingame to die from the virus.
San Francisco now has had 223 confirmed cases and the number in the Bay Area grew to 1,246. Officials have yet to release any details about the city-county's second death.
On Wednesday, San Francisco health officials announced that five staff members of San Francisco's Laguna Honda had tested positive, prompting hospital officials to place the facility on lockdown beginning Wednesday evening.
Laguna Honda, one of the largest skilled nursing facilities in the United States, is a 750-bed facility where the majority of the residents are over 65 years old with serious health conditions.
COMPLETE COVERAGE: CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
The lockdown means that residents no one is allowed to leave the premises and those who do leave the building will no longer be allowed to re-enter the hospital until at least April 7, the hospital said.
Four of these five staff members worked in two units at the hospital, and one did not work in patient care and had no patient contact, the hospital said.
So far none of the patients have tested positive, however only 15 patients had been tested as of Wednesday evening and the hospital said "that could change as the contact investigations and testing continue and the virus continues to spread in the Bay Area."
The two units at Laguna Honda where four of the five infected staffers worked, South 4 and South 5, have been quarantined from the rest of the sprawling complex just west of Twin Peaks.
San Francisco has restricted visitors and non-essential staff at Laguna Honda and the skilled nursing facility unit at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital until April 21.
There is also a ban on visitors at skilled nursing facilities throughout the city.
