Coronavirus Pandemic: 56 New Coronavirus Cases In San Francisco; City's 3rd Death
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- San Francisco health officials Friday announced 56 new positive tests for the coronavirus and the city's third death from the illness.
With Friday's announcement, the number of coronavirus cases in San Francisco since the outbreak began more than two months ago rose to 279 — second most in the Bay Area. The death was the third in the city/county over that time span.
Officials did not release any other information about the latest fatality in regards to the victim's age, sex and likely initial exposure to the disease.
COMPLETE COVERAGE: CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
With San Mateo County also reporting a new fatality Friday, the Bay Area death toll grew to 34 and now stands at 87 statewide. Santa Clara remains the hardest hit of all Bay Area counties with 542 cases and 19 deaths.
The San Francisco numbers were certain to grow as Mayor London Breed the opening of three new mobile coronavirus testing sites next week in Chinatown, the Sunset District and near Oracle Park.
The sites will be run in collaboration with North East Medical Services and Brown & Toland Physicians. They will be open to the public, but patients will need a clinical referral to be tested.
The three new sites will be added to four COVID-19 drive-thru locations currently available in the city through Kaiser Permanente, UCSF, One Medical and Sutter CPMC.
Additional testing capacity was also coming from the San Francisco Department of Public Health Laboratory -- which has tripled the number of tests it can process in a day.
By automating certain parts of the process, officials said, the lab can now run 150 tests per day, up from 50. The testing turnaround time is one to two days and typically much faster than other laboratories, which allows the city to take quicker action to conduct contact investigations and minimize spread.
With the expanded availability of testing, officials were expecting a significant job in the number of people testing positive for the virus.
"We expect to see higher numbers of positive cases with the increasing capability of COVID-19 testing," said San Francisco Director of Health Grant Colfax. "I want to be clear that not everyone needs to get tested. There are still national shortages of testing material, which means we need to prioritize our tests to those on the frontline, and for those most vulnerable and at-risk from the virus."
He said the most effective way to stop the growing spread of the virus was not testing. It was social distancing.
"I cannot stress enough that getting tested is not the most effective way to stop the spread," he said. "The most effective action you can take is to stay at home, and if you must go out to follow all social distancing recommendations."
