covid-19 - SFist - San Francisco News, Restaurants, Events, & Sports

SF Mayor Called Out for French Laundry Dinner; San Jose Mayor Apologizes for Thanksgiving Gathering

We all know that not everyone is following pandemic isolation recommendations to the T these days. But when the leaders who daily try to drill the rules into us violate the rules themselves, it's a recipe for a whole lot of exasperation and outrage in the media and on social media.

SF News

Breed and Colfax Hint at Further Health Orders But Are Shy on Specifics

While they did not announce any further restrictions on activities and businesses in the city, they hinted that these would be coming tomorrow or later in the week.

SF News

Second COVID Surge Takes Shape In CA Prisons Amid Revelations About Lax Mask-Wearing Among Staff

There have now been over 3,300 new cases in California prisons in the last 14 days, and a new report suggests that mask-wearing and other safety protocols have been lax or non-existent at some prisons during the pandemic.

SF News

Newsom: 'Red Flags Are Flying' With COVID Hospitalizations, Stricter Stay-at-Home Order Could Be Coming

With 75 percent of ICU beds now occupied across the state and 72 percent occupied in the Bay Area, Governor Gavin Newsom warned of a stricter stay-at-home order possibly to come within days for the 51 "Purple" tier counties in California.

SF News

SF Archbishop Continues Whining About COVID Restrictions On Worship, Says Legal Action Not Off the Table

SF Catholic Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone will not remain quiet about city and state public-health restrictions inhibiting him and the church from holding in-person services, as he insists upon being on the wrong side of history during a pandemic, for God's sake.

SF News

Monday Morning Headlines: Golden Gate Park Ferris Wheel Shuts Down

San Francisco added 521 COVID cases since Thanksgiving, the percentage of homes on the market in SF with reduced listings hits nine-year high, and the UC application deadline has been extended after a technical glitch.

SF News

It's Official: San Francisco Enters 'Purple' Tier as Local COVID-19 Cases Surge

The other shoe finally dropped at noon Saturday when Mayor Breed took to Twitter to announce that SF has fallen into the state's "purple" tier status — and will comply with California's limited stay-at-home curfew (which requires people to stay indoors from 10:00 p.m. to 5 a.m.) starting Monday.

SF News

San Francisco Rolls Out Virtual Assistant Tool To Help Improve Contact Tracing

As announced by City health officials Friday, San Francisco is now using mobile data technology to better its contact tracing efforts; the new virtual assistant tool from California will be used by SF's 200 contact tracers.

SF News

Santa Clara County Begins Running Low on ICU Beds Amid COVID Surge

Santa Clara County's ICU bed capacity was rapidly filling up this week amid a surge in COVID cases around the region.

SF News

As COVID Surge Hits Bay Area Hospitals, Health Officials Brace for the Worst

Several weeks after public health officials around the Bay began sounding alarm bells about upticks in case numbers, the resulting uptick in cases requiring hospitalization is now happening in force at hospitals around the region.

SF News

History Reminder: The 1918 Flu Came Roaring Back In January In San Francisco Because People Stopped Wearing Masks

Now as we're at least ankle-deep in a growing surge of cases in the Bay Area, it's worth remembering that San Francisco suffered its worst part of the last pandemic after the holidays, in January 1919, when a lot of people were sick of wearing masks.

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

Server Blames Indoor Dining for Her COVID Infection; Contact Tracing In SF Has Failed to Identify Hot Spots

San Francisco has 244 people working on contact tracing, and yet the data on where COVID cases are largely coming from remains slim — still, indoor activities like dining and house parties *seem* to be fueling some of the current surge.

SF News

San Francisco Likely Slipping Into 'Purple' Tier Next Week, Curfew to Follow

SF is likely to join the 41 counties in the "Purple" tier by next week, and with that comes the shutdown of all gyms, movie theaters, and places of worship once again.

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

Newsom Announces 10 PM Curfew For 41 Counties In 'Purple' Tier

Through Christmas week and possibly longer, residents in California counties in the state's "Purple" tier for reopening must now stop gathering with anyone outside their household or doing anything after 10 p.m., says the governor.

Bay Area Sports

San Francisco Unsurprisingly Rejects Warriors' Proposal to Allow Thousands of Fans Back Into Chase Center

We're now probably months away from allowing 50-percent capacity inside a sports arena, but the Warriors say they'll be ready "when the time is right."

SF News

In Yuba City, Where Businesses Defied Lockdown Orders In May, People Are Still Dining Indoors

Much like the patchwork landscape of COVID restrictions and varying compliance seen across the U.S., California cities and counties aren't all uniformly cooperating with Governor Gavin Newsom's latest orders even as virus cases rise.

SF News

Stanford Study Tracks COVID Spread In Crowded Indoor Businesses, Confirms Use of Capacity Limits

Stanford researchers used cellphone data to track behavior in 10 U.S. metropolitan areas between March and May, and provides convincing evidence that a large percentage of COVID-19 transmission was occurring in crowded indoor spaces including restaurants, bars, gyms, and grocery stores.

SF News

San Francisco Woman Jailed and Fined for Not Properly Quarantining In Hawaii

A San Francisco woman is currently in custody on the island of Maui after allegedly violating the state's mandatory quarantine requirement for visitors — and she's denying all wrongdoing and requesting a jury trial.

SF News

New Research Suggests COVID-19 Was Circulating in Italy in September 2019

Adding further evidence to theories that China kept the coronavirus and a spreading epidemic of flu-like symptoms hidden from the world for several months before disclosing what was happening, Italian researchers found COVID antibodies in study participants dating back to September of last year.

SF News

'We Must Triple-Down': San Francisco Officials Announce Closure of Offices, Reduction of Gym Capacity

"We are going to proceed with caution to do everything we can to avoid a [more total] shutdown," Mayor London Breed said.

SF News

San Francisco Reverts To 'Red' Tier; Five Bay Area Counties Slide Back to 'Purple' As COVID Cases Proliferate

A day ahead of the usual Tuesday update, Gov. Newsom announced an "emergency brake" on reopenings as 40 California counties slide backwards in their COVID metrics.

SF News

Elon Musk Likely Has COVID-19 as SpaceX Launch Gets Delayed

Elon Musk, who has spent a good part of this year questioning the rationale behind lockdowns and the severity of COVID-19 on Twitter, may be about to find out for himself what the disease does to a person.

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

'We Should Have Modeled Better Behavior': Newsom Called Out for Attending French Laundry Dinner

Governor Gavin Newsom is facing criticism that he and his wife attended a 12-person dinner at the French Laundry for the birthday of a political advisor last week at which members of at least three households were present.

Bay Area Sports

Update: Warriors Announce Seemingly Unwise Plan to Allow 9,000 Fans in Chase Center

The Golden State Warriors do not even have a schedule for next season yet, but already announced plans to let fans into their arena at 50% capacity in a mere six weeks.

Business & Tech

Sutter Health, Other Bay Area Healthcare Systems Purchase Special Freezers For Storing Pfizer's COVID Vaccine

In preparation for what's going to be an unprecedented quick rollout of a vaccine that nearly everyone in the country will want, healthcare organizations around the Bay Area are purchasing low-temperature freezers that are capable of storing Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine.

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