The city of San Francisco in California has seen a jump in coronavirus cases by 1,000 in 10 days, according to San Francisco Public Health Director Dr Grant Colfax. The number of COVID-19 cases had dropped considerably on June 25, leading the Mayor of the city, London Breed, to excitedly post images of the city’s zoo, which was about to reopen.
On July 26, however, Breed shared the sad news that reopening of the zoo and other facilities in the city like salons and museums would have to be put on hold because the number of cases had risen. Breed took the decision weeks before California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered a shutdown of risky indoor venues.
Currently, 107 have been hospitalized and over 6,000 infected with the virus across the city. The virus is quickly spreading and more people are becoming seriously ill.
As per Colfax, if the spread continues at this rate, on average more than 750 San Franciscans will be hospitalized by October and the city will see more than 600 deaths from the virus in 2020.
The city, to be ready for a large number of coronavirus cases, is building a new temporary hospital. The new hospital will open for non-COVID patients who need short-term medical care or observations.
A surge in COVID-19 cases in April put 94 people in the hospital. That number reduced drastically to 26 six weeks ago. As per the city's healthcare officials, it hasn’t overwhelmed its health care system yet, and they hope to keep it that way with this new facility.
As per Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at UCSF, planning will be the most important in the coming months.
San Francisco had taken precautions as early as March to keep numbers of plausible coronavirus cases low. The city was also one of the later ones to reopen. Largely, practices like wearing masks and following social distancing have kept the numbers low in San Francisco.
According to city officials, possible factors that led to an increase in the number of cases include lack of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers and lack of testing facilities.
