To the giddy delight of introverts across the seven-by-seven, the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) has now recommended “social distancing" as a precautionary measure to thwart the spread of COVID-19.
As reported on by the SF Examiner, the Mayor's Office, alongside the SF Department of Public Health and the Department of Emergency Management, released a joint statement Friday urging people to avoid large gatherings, work from home (if possible), and limit access to public facilities, amongst other published "aggressive recommendations" and means of "social distancing."
Today we're announcing new recommendations to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in SF. These systemic and individual changes will make a difference in people’s lives.
— London Breed (@LondonBreed) March 7, 2020
Though they will cause inconvenience, they're necessary and worthwhile to reduce person to person transmission. pic.twitter.com/1R6BwkpxAE
“We have been preparing for this,” said Breed in the statement. “These recommendations are informed by the best public health information available and guided by experts in our own health department, [and they] mirror the actions being taken in many other municipalities and are informed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines."
Board of Supervisors President Norman Yee supports Breed, adding in the released statement that it’s the city’s "most important responsibility" to keep the public "safe and healthy." Yee also made it a point to mention that San Francisco’s vulnerable communities are the ones "most at risk": “We must continue to protect our seniors and other members of our vulnerable communities who are most at risk of being seriously harmed by this disease."
Similarly, the SF Recreation and Parks Department said they'll now close the Golden Gate Park Senior Center and suspend all senior programming for the next two weeks; the department will now up the sanitization of its facilities to "two comprehensive cleanings and sanitations daily."
This isolating update from the City of San Francisco came just a day after the first two confirmed cases of coronavirus were reported within city limits — both, per NBC Bay Area, were deemed the result of "community spread."
There are now a reported 105,000-plus cases of COVID-19 across the globe, according to data procured from John Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
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