San Francisco Coronavirus Cases Reach 113; More Nurses Hired

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — As the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in San Francisco climbed to 113 Monday, city leaders announced the city acquired 1 million masks for frontline healthcare workers, hired dozens more nurses and will open a pop-up emergency shelter for the city's homeless.

Providing an update on the city's response to COVID-19 along with other city leaders at the newly relocated Emergency Operations Center at the Moscone Center South convention center, Breed said the recently acquired personal protective gear, or PPE, from California Gov. Gavin Newsom was much needed.

"This is a problem all over the country. There have been real challenges for hospitals everywhere to get access to PPE. It is the thing we need most in order to protect, not only the people who are at the hospitals taking care of the patients, but to also make sure that our first responders have the support and equipment that they need," Breed said.

a $2.5 million Arts Relief Program to help working artists and arts and cultural organizations financially impacted by COVID-19.

In addition to the 1 million masks from the state, Facebook has provided the city with 100,000 masks and 400,000 gloves.

San Francisco-based freight forwarding service Flexport donated 60,000 masks, 34,000 gloves and 2,000 surgical gowns and 50 thermometers, through an effort coordinated by Supervisor Catherine Stefani, she said.

"So many people, not only in the private sectors but others, who have been stepping up to make sure that we have what we need as it relates to hospital beds; as it relates to personal protective equipment; as it relates to keeping people safe during this coronavirus pandemic," she said.

During her update, Breed also urged residents to comply with the citywide and statewide shelter-in-place order in light of reports of large gatherings over the weekend.

"If things continue in the way that we saw them happen over the weekend, we will have no choice to but to close our park system, to work on other mitigating suggestions that we need to do in order to ensure that people are not allowed to use these spaces," she said. "It's really the last thing that I want to do, so I want to plead to the people of our city to comply with the order."

Breed also reported a donation fund set up by the city raised over $5 million.

The funding will go toward supporting critical facilities and patient care, as well as local businesses and organizations in the face of COVID-19.

Salesforce and the foundations the Ann and Gordon Getty and the Hellman Foundation have all donated $1 million or more each.

Furthermore, Breed announced a $2.5 million Arts Relief Program to help working artists and arts and cultural organizations financially impacted by COVID-19.

Of the funding, $1.5 million will go towards grants to individual artists, teaching artists, and arts and cultural organizations, while $1 million will go toward low-interest loans to arts and cultural organizations.

With the number of new cases in the city now triple digits, Director of Public Health Grant Colfax predicted the number will rise.

"Every community where the virus has taken hold has seen a surge in coronavirus patients who need to be hospitalized. We expect that to happen in San Francisco soon; in a week or two, or perhaps even less," he said.

Colfax said the city's hospitals we all jointly working on a "unified plan to prepare for the surge," which included decompressing the city's hospital and healthcare system as much as possible.

Additionally, the city offered more than 80 nurses jobs on-the-spot during an invite-only hiring fair over the weekend, according to Colfax.

"We will continue to need as many nurses as we can get," he said. In response to PPE shortages for frontline health care workers and first responders, he said, "Today we have enough, however, I am very concerned that will change when we get to a surge of coronavirus patients."

Trent Rhorer, executive director of the city's Human Services Agency, which is tasked with providing shelter for the city's most vulnerable populations during the public health emergency, said more than 31 hotels have offered a total of over 8,000 rooms for people who need to quarantine but can't, although only about 320 are currently under lease.

Rhorer said the hotel rooms are intended for people who live in congregate settings like single-room occupancy hotels, homeless shelters, or hospitals and long-term care facilities.

The rooms would also be used to house frontline workers. In addition to the hotel rooms, Rhorer said the agency would open up two pop-up shelters offering care for high-risk individuals who can't self-care in order to free up space at other shelters for social distancing.

One of the pop-up shelters will be located at Moscone Center North, Rhorer said, which would be activated within the next 48 hours.

The agency is assessing a site for a second pop-up shelter.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin reminded residents the city's Board of Supervisors will continue to meet, with the first-ever virtual supervisors meeting happening Tuesday.

In regards to compliance with social distancing, San Francisco Police Department Chief Bill Scott said, "We will try to exhaust every means necessary to spread the word on social distancing before we take enforcement action."

Scott also said since the shelter order, violent crimes, property crimes and calls for service have all been dramatically reduced.

He added, "We do not have any documented hate crimes regarding COVID, but I have heard rumors in the community that might be the case but none have been reported to the community."

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