SF On Watch List, Halts Reopening; Breed Warns Of 'Living In COVID' For 12-18 Months
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – San Francisco Mayor London Breed said Friday she has tested negative for COVID-19 for a second time after being exposed to the virus, her remarks coming as she announced the city would continue to pause its reopening process indefinitely because of a surge in coronavirus cases.
The decision by the San Francisco Department of Public Health to pause reopening comes as San Francisco has been placed on the State of California's county monitoring list, or "watch list" due to rising hospitalizations.
"On April 11th, we had 94 people hospitalized. By mid-June we were down to as low as 26 people. We're now back up to 80 people in the hospital," Breed said at a news conference on Friday.
The change means indoor malls and non-essential offices must now close, except for minimum basic operations, effective Monday, July 20.
Friday's announcement came a day after Breed warned the crisis would likely continue for the foreseeable future and urged better coordination among leaders, as COVID-19 cases rise in San Francisco and across the country.
"I want to be clear. We are living in COVID for the next, you know, 12 to 18 months, and we are really all in this together. That's why when you have governors of states not requiring masks by their constituents, that's why we have a problem," Breed said in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Thursday.
"We need something on a more national scale to address what we know, we are all struggling with. Yes we want to open schools. Yes, we want to open businesses. We want the economy to get going," Breed went on to say. "But the only way that's going to happen is if everybody does their part. And we can't have governors, mayors, even our President making different decisions because we are all impacted by bad choices."
When asked about the rising number of cases locally, Breed said, "I think it has a lot to do with many of the large gatherings that continue to take place across the state."
The mayor said their data showed those who participate in large gatherings, along with the city's Latino workforce, were being infected in higher numbers.
Breed also said the virus' Re number, a measure on the average number of people who become infected with COVID-19 by an infectious person, was at 1.3. The mayor stressed the number should be 1.0 or below to continue reopening.
"People are tired of the virus, but the virus isn't tired of us. And the fact is we can't get complacent, and I think that has had a lot to do with what we're seeing," Breed said.
The mayor also discussed the San Francisco Unified School District's recent decision to begin the year under distance learning, saying "based on what we see with the data, we are not in a position where we will be able to allow to schools to reopen at this time."
As of Friday morning, at least 52 people have died and 4,975 people in San Francisco have tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
