Coronavirus Update: San Francisco Expands Paid Leave For Frontline Healthcare Workers
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- San Francisco's Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously passed emergency legislation to immediately provide two more weeks of paid leave for the city's healthcare workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.
The emergency ordinance was introduced by Supervisor Gordon Mar and co-sponsored by Matt Haney, Hillary Ronen, Rafael Mandelman, Shamann Walton, Ahsha Safai, and Dean Preston. Doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers will be able to immediately access two additional weeks of fully paid leave if they are affected in any way by COVID-19.
This includes if workers demonstrate symptoms, are recommended to self-quarantine, or don't fall in line with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidelines for returning to work, a city official said.
Healthcare workers with large private employers, such as Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health, Dignity Health and Northeast Medical Services, are eligible to receive paid leave.
The order will go into effect as soon as it is approved by Mayor London Breed.
"Our doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers are working on front lines in the midst of a pandemic, and it is in the interest of public health to ensure that those workers do not have to go to work if they are sick," Mar said in a statement Tuesday. "These workers are taking care of us when we need it most; and when they need it most, we need to take care of them."
Mar said the new ordinance strikes a "careful balance" between the need to protect healthcare workers while maintaining proper staffing of the healthcare system during the pandemic.
