SF News Tuesday Morning Topline: San Mateo Moving to 'Orange' Tier San Mateo County is likely to advance to the 'Orange' tier today, San Francisco has lowered the BMI threshold for vaccine eligibility, and fire crews put out a two-alarm blaze at a flooring store in San Leandro Monday night.
SF News Tesla's Fremont Factory Doubled as COVID-19 Hotspot in 2020, New Report Suggests Last year, at least 400 cases of COVID-19 were recorded from May to December at Tesla's Fremont plant after employees returned to work, according to a report procured by the Washington Post.
SF News A Year Ago This Weekend, SF Bars Were Ordered Closed and Pandemic Panic-Shopping Began The first two weeks of March 2020 were very weird for just about everyone. And this weekend marks one year since SF shut down large bars and clubs, a few days before the whole city would shut down.
SF News Entire Bay Area Enters Red Tier As State Announces New Status For Sonoma and Contra Costa County The last two local counties to leave the "Purple" tier for the "Red" one in the state's metrics for reopening, Contra Costa and Sonoma counties, were promoted on Friday, several days ahead of the weekly Tuesday schedule.
SF News More of SF Eligible for Vaccine Monday: People With Health Issues, in Homeless Shelters, Incarcerated People with a whole range of medical conditions will be eligible for their vaccine shot effective Monday, March 15, as will anyone in a congregate care facility like a homeless shelter or jail.
SF News UCSF Docs Discuss SF's Remarkably Low COVID Mortality Rate, and Whether the Vaccinated Should Fear Variants A panel of doctors at UCSF have been broadcasting their "Grand Rounds" since early in the pandemic, and looking back on the past year they say San Francisco has been a great success story.
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink Independent Bay Area Restaurants May Get Relief From $28.6B Piece of Stimulus Package Under the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill that the House was taking a final vote on today, a new fund will provide relief money — up to $5M each — to independent restaurants that won't need to be put toward payroll.
SF News [Update] Awful Woman Coughs on SF Uber Driver, Tries to Steal His Phone After Being Told to Wear a Mask An Uber driver picked up a classy trio of young women during the brunch hours of Sunday in San Francisco, only to have one of them swear at him and cough on him after being told she needed to wear a mask.
SF News Golden Gate Fields Physician Featured On '60 Minutes' Story About New Drug For COVID Patients Dr. David Seftel, the physician for the 500 employees and their families at the East Bay racetrack Golden Gate Fields, recently played a role in the early study of a common psychiatric drug, fluvoxamine, to treat COVID.
SF News Want a Vaccine Before You're Eligible? California Creates New Volunteer Sign-Up Site Mass-vaccination sites across the state of California are in need of volunteers. For those eager to get a vaccine shot before they're eligible without committing any ethical misdeeds, there may be opportunities in your area to volunteer some time and receive a vaccine.
SF News Protesters Seeking Shutdown of Golden Gate Fields Racetrack Over Horse Deaths Cause Mass Vaccination Site For Humans to Be Shut Down A group of a few dozen animal rights activists succeeded in preventing some human people from getting their COVID vaccines in the East Bay today.
SF News Cheap Syringes at Oakland Coliseum Vaccination Site Lead to Wasted Vaccine, Accidental Under-dosing Over 4,000 people who received vaccines at the mass-vaccination site at the Oakland Coliseum on Monday may have received the wrong dose amount, according to a new report. The under-dosing
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink SF Teachers and Restaurant Workers Now Vying for Vaccine Appointments, With Teachers Getting First Dibs Both educators and food-service workers gained eligibility for COVID-19 vaccines last week in San Francisco, alongside emergency services, transit, and grocery store workers. But getting an appointment still has been no easy feat for some.
SF News SF Retail Was Hurting Before the Pandemic; Will Post-COVID SF Still Look Like a Ghost Town For Years? Union Square. Hayes Valley. The Castro. In these and other neighborhoods around the city, no amount of parklet dining and drinking can make up for the fact that, on some blocks, there are more empty storefronts than there are active ones.
SF News After Three Months Stuck In the 'Purple' Tier, SF Turns 'Red,' Allows Indoor Dining and Workouts to Resume As expected for several weeks though a week later than predicted, San Francisco has moved to state's "Red" tier for reopening businesses, as COVID case numbers have fallen back to levels not seen since before Thanksgiving. Also newly "Red" are Santa Clara and Napa.
SF News San Francisco Woman Who Lost Trump-Supporting Dad to COVID Seeks to Establish National COVID Memorial Day Now that over a half-million Americans have been lost to this pandemic — and the number could easily top 600,000 or higher before the year is out — there is a movement to establish a new national holiday to remember and mourn the COVID dead.
Arts & Entertainment The Chapel in the Mission Stages Socially Distant Mini-Concert With Singer Live Via Projection Live vocal performances still aren't permitted in SF under pandemic rules, even outdoors. But on Thursday night, Mission District venue The Chapel pulled off an experiment in COVID-safe live performance, with the singer live except not physically in the space with the band or the audience.
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink Indoor Dining in SF Will Be Limited to Single-Household Tables of Four As discussed earlier this week, the timing for the restart of indoor dining in San Francisco is looking to be next week, and Mayor London Breed confirmed on Wednesday that it will start again as soon as SF is moved into the "Red" tier.
SF News One Medical Has Vaccines Revoked By SF, San Mateo, and Alameda Counties Over Allegations of Improper Distribution A day after NPR reported that SF-based healthcare startup One Medical had given COVID vaccines to ineligible patients and non-patient-facing staff, three Bay Area health departments are stopping vaccine allocations to the company.
SF News New CDC Studies Say Group Fitness Classes, Heavy Breathing at Indoor Gyms Led to COVID Outbreaks Two new case studies by the CDC have found that indoor group fitness classes in Honolulu and Chicago led directly to COVID outbreaks that infected dozens of people.
Business & Tech SF-Based One Medical Reportedly Allowed Ineligible Patients and Work-From-Home Staff to Get Vaccines SF-based healthcare startup One Medical is the latest organization being called out for unethical practices in the distribution of still very limited supplies of COVID-19 vaccine — allegedly including giving vaccine shots to friends and family of company leadership, and patients in their 20s.
SF News SF Opens Up Vaccinations to Teachers, Grocery Store and Restaurant Workers — But How Soon Will They Get Them? While vaccine supplies remain inconsistent and insufficient, San Francisco officially moved into Phase 1B of vaccine eligibility on Wednesday, allowing grocery store and food service workers to be next in line alongside educators, childcare workers, and emergency services personnel.
SF News SF Waits Out Another Week In 'Purple' Tier As San Mateo and Marin Counties Turn 'Red' Even though San Francisco's COVID case numbers have looked about as good as those in neighboring counties San Mateo and Marin, the latter two have advanced to the "Red" tier for reopening as of Tuesday afternoon, while SF is left behind with the majority of California counties in the "Purple" tier.
SF News Dancing Grandma From Grand Princess COVID Debacle Looks Back One Year Later We can now mark the one-year anniversary of the Grand Princess cruise ship COVID outbreak and the ensuing, weeks-long, nationally televised drama that was a precursor to the global pandemic. Two surviving elderly passengers say they have two more cruises planned after their vaccines.
SF News Studies In Mission District Find California Virus Variant Is More Infectious — But Not As Infectious as UK Variant Two recent studies based on COVID testing in San Francisco's Mission District offer some insight into the so-called California variant of the coronavirus, which appears to be becoming more prevalent locally with each week.
