Transcripts For SFGTV Mayors Press Availability 20240713

About the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake. This weekend marks the 106th anniversary of the earthquake. When we all can look back on our history and remember during that time, not only did the earthquake hit and it really physically destroyed buildings and many parts of our city, there was a very devastating fire that occurred. And, in fact, over 3,000 people lost their lives. And during that time, san franciscans didnt throw up their hands. We took to our feet, we came together with businesses, with people from all over the city and we focused on rebuilding. We got through that because we came together. We got through the 1906 earthquake because we worked together. Because we didnt throw up our hands. We focused on recovery. And that really is the spirit of what it means to be a san franciscan. It really does represent who we are, because we focus on how do we get through this and how do we move forward and how do we become better than ever . This is a resilient city because of that. And just like after the 1906 earthquake, the work that went into rebuilding our city and making it stronger for future earthquakes that we knew were coming, we also really rebuilt this city and we have been through a number of challenges that have made us Even Stronger and better. This is a pandemic like no other. And this is a challenge that we will get through. And just like in the 1906 earthquake, we will rebuild and thrive. Today i want to talk a little bit about our new directive that dr. Colfax will provide more information about. And that is a new requirement to wear Face Coverings. We recommended Face Covering in the past and now as of midnight tonight, it will be a requirement. But i dont want you to be alarmed. I want to make sure that people know our goal isnt to enforce until april 22nd to give people who may not have access to Face Coverings the opportunity to get access to them. We are working to distribute some to many of our vulnerable populations, but we want to ask members of the public to do this now if you can. Whether its a mask and there is no need to wear an n95 mask. Those should be reserved for Health Care Workers, but any type of mask, facecovering, a scarf, something that covers your nose and mouth, this will be a requirement for people who are standing in line at Grocery Stores or any other places open for essential services. Its going to be required when youre inside of those locations. Any time youre indoors or within close proximity of others within an essential business or at work, like many of our City Employees who are essential workers on the front lines, you will be required to wear a mask. Now, if someone is out walking and theyre with other folks, someone is out and theyre with other people in their household, or youre running or exercising or doing something out in the open and youre social distancing yourself from others, that is not as problematic as when youre standing in line and in other locations where there are a lot of people. We want to be clear that the requirement to wear Face Coverings does not take the place of social distancing. Maintaining six feet regardless of this new requirement. And i also want to make it clear, if you are not a police officer, dont act like one. Were not expecting people to police one another, because the fact is, you cant control what other people do. You can only control what you do. And what we ask you to do is, if you can obey the order and have a Face Covering on and keep your distance at least six feet from anyone. I want to be clear, what we dont want is more confrontation, more stress and more drama in general as a result of this order. We dont expect anyone in this city to step up and Police Anyone other than the people who work for the San Francisco Police Department. So, please, do your part to follow the order and worry about what you need to do and not what someone else is doing. And well do our very best in order to manage this situation. And dr. Colfax will talk a little bit more about the Face Covering requirements, but this does not this does not change the need for us to social distance ourselves from one another, it does not change the existing rules, it does not make it better, its just an additional requirement, an additional allayer that is an additional layer that is necessary to help us flatten the curve. So far youve been doing an amazing job. So many people in the city doing an amazing job of keeping your distance, following the order, respecting one another and your space. And we want to continue is that and were just adding an additional requirement that will also help in this effort. Speaking of staying at home, i just want to remind people that during 420, we are going to be add Golden Gate Park. Were going to fence up Golden Gate Park. Well have Police Officers out in force. And we will not allow any large gatherings of any kind at Golden Gate Park. So i am asking you to stay at home for 420. It is not going to happen at Golden Gate Park. So, please, follow this order and not just as it relates to large gatherings for 420, but for any other large gathering. I just want to remind people, for example and i talked about the choir where they practice social distancing and they had rehearsal and 45 people were infected and two died. Situations where people and families have gotten together anyway and only to discover that they are now infected with the coronavirus. This is real. It can hit you at any time. And even if you dont care, if you get infected, please care about your family members and the other folks that you come in contact with. You know, i always bring this back to my grandmother who raised me. There is no way that if she was still alive today that i would want to be the reason why she was infected or i would want anyone to infect her because of being irresponsible in this effort. So just keep that in mind. So many people are counting on us to do the right thing. Stay home for 420. Dont come to San Francisco. We are not welcoming any large gatherings of any nature, not just during 420, but any other time as long as the stayathome order is in place. Thank you, all, so much for your understanding and your cooperation. I want to also take this moment to talk about a few expanded resources, because we know that our seniors and our disabled population, they are probably struggling in some instances. They have neighbors who are looking out for them or family members or folks volunteering to run errands and do grocery shopping, but the fact is they may need to take essential trips. For Health Reasons or what have you, they may need to go somewhere and theyre concerned about getting on the bus and theyre concerned that because theyre part of the vulnerable population about getting around the city and there are mobility challenges that exist that make it difficult to do so. The sfmta has created an essentialtrip card program which provides reduced cost taxi trips for older adults and people with disabilities. So while this is an important resource for people who may have limited mobility and who dont have other Transportation Options available, with this program, people can get a card that allows them to take 23 trips per month at 20 of the cost of a regular fare. So, for example, if the fare is 10, then the person only pays 2, which is really incredible for our senior population and those who have disabilities. We want to make sure that transportation for essential needs or things you may need to do, that its not a barrier during this time. Its important that we provide Creative Solutions for our vulnerable populations. And thats exactly what were doing with this program. If you want more information, please call 311, or you can visit the sfmta website. We are here for you and we are here to do all we can to take care of the residents of San Francisco. I want to, again, express my appreciation to each and every one of you. It is the people of San Francisco that are following the directives, cooperating and doing the best that you can youre the reason why San Francisco is a model for so many other cities to follow. Youre the reason, your cooperation. And i want to be clear that as difficult as i know it is for you, i know that we have parts of our communities that are not complying with the orders that we put forth, whether they are being defiant or they may not have the mental capacity to really understand and follow the directive, there are challenges we know that exist with people who arent able to follow the order. Again, we are going to do everything we can to get people to comply, but the fact is, what all of you are doing, how you have all participated by following the order, has put us in a great situation, but we cant let up. We cant let up because the fact is, sadly, 20 people have already lost their lives. We have over a thousand cases in our city and growing. And we cant let up because that could mean the possibility of other people getting infected and seeing the numbers surge completely out of control. That is the last thing we want. And that is why i want to remind you as the weekend comes, make sure that you are keeping your distance from people who are not a part of your household. Make sure youre not making this onetime exception of getting together for a dinner party or any other event. Make sure that you are using the telephone or other resources to call and check on family members to make sure that their Mental Health and wellbeing is okay. But we need you more than ever to continue down this path so that we cannot only flatten the curve, but make it nonexistent. Thank you, all, again for your cooperation. At this time i would like to introduce the director of the department of Public Health, dr. Grant colfax. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, mayor breed. Im grant colfax, director of health for the city and county of San Francisco. As we Work Together across the city to flatten the curve, and even as we all do our part and even as we see signs of progress, i want to acknowledge the grief, anxiety and perhaps for some even anger that we are experiencing during these unprecedented times. The department under the direction of the mayor with other city departments, with Key Community stakeholders, and from people like you, the department is doing all it can to address and mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. In doing so, the department of health will always listen, welcome feedback and strive to refine and improve our response. This is particularly important as it becomes increasingly clear that the coronavirus will exploit longstanding challenges and disparities as it spreads, whether this be related to other Health Issues such as Mental Health and Substance Use disorders, or broader inequities, such as homelessness, housing challenges, or income disparities. This is why we must continue together to be unified and vigilant to slow the spread of the virus. And to make difficult decisions and to prioritize our actions. We must continue to follow the science, data and facts as we move forward together. I would like to provide an update on the data, including citywide cases as well as at the jail, the msc south shelter and laguna honda hospital. Today as the mayor said there are 1058 San Francisco residents with confirmed cases of coronavirus. Out of a total of 10,077 tests reported. Sadly, 20 people have died and i send my condolences to their families, loved ones, community and friends. There are 91 patients with coronavirus hospitalized across the city and about 30 of these cases are in the intensive care unit. Our hospitalization numbers for covid19positive patients have been holding relatively steady for the past week, which is welcome news, but again, that could change at any time, especially as we expect to see continued outbreaks. Across San Franciscos Hospital System today, there are 1,048 acute care beds and 445 intensive care beds available across the city to meet the demands of a surge. Yesterday the city had its first positive case confirmed in our citys jail. The person showed no symptoms, but was tested and isolated as part of routine testing of all new bookings that are housed in the jail. A contact investigation is under way. As i reported last week, there was an outbreak of coronavirus at msc south, the citys largest homeless shelter. As of today, 95 guests and 10 staff there have tested positive for the coronavirus. And at laguna honda hospital, there are 19 confirmed cases of coronavirus. 15 of the confirmed cases are among staff and 4 are among residents. There have now been no new cases among residents since april 7th. All the residents are in good condition. And, again, we are doing everything we can to reduce the spread of the virus in our community, protect vulnerable population, Health Care Workers and First Responders. Now i would like to provide more details about the new action that san franciscans that we are taking to help san franciscans fight the spread of the coronavirus. Because even as we respond to outbreaks now in the Homeless Community and in longterm care facilities, we are also looking ahead. Today, as the mayor announced, we will residents and workers will be required to wear Face Coverings at essential businesses and public facilities and on transit. This requirement is a legal health order and takes effect at midnight tonight. It strengthens a recommendation we made on april 2nd and is informed by the centers for Disease Control and prevention guidelines. Like our shelter in place order and many of our approaches, this is a regional effort. The Face Covering requirements have already been announced by Sonoma County and several other bay area jurisdictions will announce similar orders today. By Wearing Masks or Face Coverings when interacting with other people in public, san franciscans will be less likely to transmit the coronavirus to one another. It is important to understand that todays order is part of a broader strategy to establish new ways of interacting and behaving. This will help us now and it will help us in the future as we hope to be able to relax the stayathome order. By then people will already be in the habit of wearing Face Coverings at the Grocery Store, in lines, while riding a bus, taxi, or uber. It is likely that we will need to continue to do this for some time, even after we start to emerge from our home. And, please and i cant emphasize this enough please know and please remember that wearing a Face Covering is not a substitute for staying at home, staying six feet apart, and frequent handwashing. The purpose of covering your nose and mouth is to protect other people. Face coverings help to stop droplets that may be infectious, even if the person wearing the mask has no or mild symptoms. In other words, my mask i want to assure you i was wearing a mask until approaching this podium my mask protects you and your mask protects me. Covering your face is a great way to show you care for your neighbors, your friends, your community. We are going to have to continue to Work Together to slow down the virus and reduce transmission. The virus is still out there, so we must continue to be vigilant. I want to emphasize that the Face Covering is just one part of an Effective Response infrastructure. Other components include aggressive outbreak investigation, expanded testing, contacttracing, and adherence to isolation and quarantine orders and continued prevention. All of these all of these will be critical in the future to maintaining any gains we are making due to our current efforts to flatten the curve. There are good signs that we are, indeed, making progress, but we still have a long way to go. Thank you for everything you are doing to protect the health of our community. Together, every day, we are saving lives. Thank you. Now id like to introduce the director of mta who will make a few remarks. Thank you, dr. Colfax. Once again, my name is jeffrey tumlin. Im the director of transportation at the sfmta. I have four key points to make. One is a reminder. Muni is for essential trips only. This means essential workers and people making essential trips like going to the Grocery Store, going to the pharmacy or going to seek social services. If you have another means of making your essential trip, please choose to do so. Its very important that we save seats for essential workers that have no other means of getting to work. The second point and this is again to emphasize what dr. Colfax and the mayor have said if youre riding muni, please wear a Face Covering. This is incredibly important and again, it is not about protecting your health, its about protecting the health of the other passengers and our operators. Please wear a face mask when riding muni. My third key point is something that the mayor mentioned, which is our new service offering. We know as muni cut back its service to the 17 most essential routes that serve the majority of our riders, that we left parts of the city behind. So my team has worked rapidly this week to develop the essentialtrip card. This works effectively as a debit card and if youre an older adult over the age of 65 or somebody with disabilities, you can order your essentialtrip card by calling 311 or going to our website at sfmta. Com covid. The card works for any taxi service. Call the cab and use the card like you would a debit card and it gives you an 80 discount on essential trips. Trips to the pharmacy, the Grocery Store or other essential services. At the same time, it supports our taxi operators who have been hit hard by this crisis. We have partnered with the taxi industry to support them in making sure that all drivers have personal protective equipment as well as cleaning supplies for their vehicles so they can make sure the vehicle is clean on every trip. Were happy to have announced this partnership with the taxi industry and hope it will help provide important connections to members of our community who have suffered from the decline in muni service. My final point is about our muni ambassador program, which we also started piloting yesterday and goes into full effect today. Were having teams of sfmta employees stationed at the main bus stop throughout the system. Theyre wearing yellow vests, so you can see them. And theyre helping passengers with a variety of healthrelated objectives such as standing six feet apart at the bus stop, making sure that passengers are Wearing Masks. Were partnering with other departments to distribute masks and other Face Coverings to our riders. Theyre also making sure that our buses are not getting too crowded. We set passenger caps on all the buses. Were limiting the 30foot buses to 15 passengers. 40foot buses to 20 passengers. And our 60foot are limited to 30 passengers. What this mean is, you may be passed up by our operators if the bus is already full. It may also mean if youre not wearing a Face Covering, that the operator may also pass you up. Please be patient with us and wait for the next bus, or if you have another trip alternative, choose that alternative. Were so happy to be partnering with the health streets Operation Center as well. In order to direct people in need of Homelessness Services and other social services to those Services Rather than taking refuge on our muni buses. The sfmta is proud to be able to keep essential workers moving, making sure that the nurses and janitors and cooks and cleaners are able to get to work to keep all of us happy. And were relying upon all of you to do your part as well in order to keep our passengers and our operators healthy. With that, id like to introduce the chief of the San Francisco Police Department, chief william scott. Good afternoon, everyone. Im chief william scott, the San Francisco Police Department. First id like to again thank our mayor london breed for her leadership during this challenging time and thank our Public Health director, dr. Grant colfax for his leadership. I want to update you on the enforcements efforts of the Public Health order. With the good weather weve increased our presence in city parks and other popular places where we know people enjoy walking and getting out of the house for exercise. With the park rangers from the parks and rec department, weve been able to educate the public and continue to warn the public to make sure they stay a safe distance away, the six feet that has been recommended by our Public Health officials. With that, were still enforcing where enforcement is appropriate and ill get to that in a minute. As i stated before, our officers found that the vast majority of the public in San Francisco have been compliant. Id like to reiterate what mayor breed said a little while ago. We also would like to thank the members of the public who have vastly been compliant with this order. There are still some challenges and we continue to work through the challenges, but the men and women of the San Francisco Police Department want to be part of the solution and we are here to help and help keep our city healthy and safe. With that said, our citation has not changed from the last press conference on wednesday. We still have nine citations in connection with violating the countys Public Health order. We have issued a number of warnings for the nonessential businesses since wednesday and that continues. Also we are still receiving calls regarding social distancing at essential businesses. I must say most of the businesses, the majority of the businesses for that matter, have been compliant with that. In terms of crime, we are still where we were as of wednesday. Same report. Our total overall crime, we have 25 reduction which equates to 130 fewer crimes than the week before. And that breakdown is a 29 reduction in property crime, which equates to 130 fewer crimes, and a 0 change for our violent crime. So we are exactly the same as we were the week before on Violent Crimes. Compared to march 31 through april 5, the third week of this reporting period, were still seeing overall decreases in crime. Thats both yeartodate and week to week. We want the public and the people who would take advantage of people during this challenging time to know that we take crime seriously. Nothing has changed in terms of our enforcement of the law, although, the jails have had to make adjustments and other parts of the criminal Justice System have had to make adjustments to keep everybody safe, laws are still being enforced and we will make arrests and working with the sheriffs and the sheriffs department, they will accommodate violent offenders and people who threaten public safety. So we want to make sure that message is reassured. That the public knows were out there and well continue to be out there. Were still seeing some challenges with burglaries. And were working through that. With that, id like to thank partnership with the District Attorney and his team at the District Attorneys office. Weve made a number of arrests and the District Attorneys office has charged looting charges. I would like to thank them for their attention to that matter. This week i also want to give a shoutout to our dispatchers. This is basically national dispatchers week. Our dispatchers work 247 to reassure the public when people call and sometimes the most difficult times in their lives, those dispatchers are there to reassure them that things are going to be okay as much as we can make them okay. They do a phenomenal job. Theyre by our side and we want to reach out and thank them for the work they do in this challenging time as well. Also, this week is actually the crime victims week and its a time to remember those survivors who have lost their loved ones to victims of crime such as murder and other Violent Crimes. And i want to reach out to our victims and remind them, we are there for you, the San Francisco Police Department and the city of San Francisco will always be there in your time of need. We know this is a time there are normally activities surrounding National Victims week in the state capitol, and those festivities were not able to happen this week, so we want to let you know, we do remember what you all have gone through and were there for you as well. Couple notes to reiterate about 420. I want to, again, thank the mayor for her leadership on this and reiterate what she said. We will be out in full force this weekend, including 420, the date of 420. You will see officers . The parks, street clothes. You will see us out with the area fenced off. We want to remind people, please do not engage in 420 festivities. We cant afford to let up right now. The city is doing well. Our public has responded to the calls to stay at home and we really need you to heed to that advice and stay at home. And if you dont follow that advice, well be there. And, again, we will cite, we will arrest if we have to, but well be there to make sure that we keep this city as safe and healthy as we can. Just a reminder again, please do not engage in 420 activities in the city or anywhere else for that matter during this pandemic. With that, i close and thank you again, and turn this over for questions. Reporter okay. Our first set of questions are for dr. Grant colfax. Reporter dr. Colfax, the first question is from fox news. Today the first Antibody Test results showed an infection rate in Santa Clara County up to 85 times higher than the number of people who actually tested positive. For an infection fatality rate of 1. 2 , what do you make of the numbers and how might they be used to formulate adjustments to the current recommendation . So i think that those data are important and certainly significant. I think its too early to generalize them with regard to how theyll apply to our recommendations. Were reviewing that study and im hopeful there will be other data similar in other jurisdictions that will be produced to help us make more informed decisions moving forward. As ive alluded to in previous conferences, were working hard with scientists at ucsf to conduct similar studies to get better data on the prevalence of coronavirus in our community. Right now, remember, the numbers are based on the number of people we are testing. It does not represent the total number of coronavirus circulating in the community. Those are important data and we are working hard to obtain them as quickly as possible with scientists in the at ucsf and other institutions. Are there exceptions for Face Coverings in public like kids . How should parents get their kids to wear masks . Well be releasing frequently asked before the order goes into effect tonight. There will be clear guidelines on how to support your children in Wearing Masks. I also want to emphasize that in very Young Children, our recommendation, we strongly discourage the use of masks in very Young Children. There is a risk of suffocation, so you want to make sure that Young Children do not wear masks. Those guidelines will be provided. Children under 12 are not required to wear masks. Children under 2, we do not recommend maskwearing for children under 2. Reporter and from shannon lynn, how is San Francisco testing Homeless Populations both in shelters and encampments . So with regard to testing in those situations, we follow our policy with regard to testing people in general. With regard to focusing on people who have symptoms. If people are positive, we focus on doing intensive contact investigation and testing people who have had close contacts or who are otherwise at risk or who show symptoms. This is what were doing, again, across the city as we continue our number of outbreak investigations. Reporter okay. Thank you, dr. Colfax. The next questions for trent rhorer, Human Services agency. Trent rhorer, Human Services agency. Reporter how are the shelter hotels run . Are they safe for nearby neighborhoods . Thanks for the question. First, let me say that because there has been some confusion. When the city enters into a contract with the hotel, were taking 100 of the rooms in that hotel. There has been some confusion that were taking or contracting a portion of the rooms in a particular place. Were not. We have the entire hotel. And we staff it accordingly. Specific to the question, individuals who are placed in hotels who need to be isolated or quarantined are arrive to the hotel and theyre counselled by the department of Public Health staff on site about the need to remain in their rooms. In addition, all of the needs that the patients might have when theyre in the hotels are met in their rooms. Most notably, the food. We bring three meals a day directly to the patients door. The patient, when theyre done, leaves the empty or the dirty dishes outside where theyre picked up. Same with laundry. Everything is sort of oriented towards keeping that individual in his or her room in order to satisfy the quarantine or isolation requirements. Reporter just iterate, after moving confirmed cases, contacts or vulnerable populations to hotel rooms, are they allowed to leave the room . Lastly, are there professional staff on site in each hotel . There are professional staff on it in each hotel. The case of isolation and quarantine rooms, there are clinical staff from the department of Public Health to support the patients medical needs. In addition there are Hotel Operational staff, largely coordinated by the Human Services agencies. These would be basic hotel operations. There may be nonmedical type staff to support the staff as well. As i said earlier, individuals who are there to isolate or quarantine are counselled at the beginning when theyre placed. Theyre to remain in their rooms. There are wellness checks in the rooms throughout the day, in addition to dropping meals off. So the patients that are there are seen many times throughout the day to make sure theyre in their rooms and complying with the directions to remain. Reporter thank you. The next question is for director abigail stewartkhan, homelessness and Supportive Housing. Reporter okay. This question comes from shannon lynn, can you share why there is a delay with placing more Homeless People into hotel rooms . There is no delay. We are placing people into hotel rooms on a daily basis. We have opened four hotel rooms for the noncovid Homeless Population in a very short period of time. There is another one opening today. And more opening over the course of the next week in rapid in a rapid approach. Reporter okay, thank you. That concludes all the questions for todays press conference. Good afternoon, everyone. Im San Francisco mayor london breed. Im joined today by the director of Public Health, dr. Grant colfax, as well as the director of the department of Emergency Management mary ellen carroll, the police chief bill scott. The director of the department of Human Services, trent rhorer. And the department of homelessness and housing, abigail stewartkhan. I want to thank you for tuning in today and joining us to talk about a few updates we have related to covid19 here in San Francisco. As of today, we have 1,013 total cases of those who have been diagnosed with covid19. And sadly, we have lost 17 people. There are 17 people who died as a result of this virus as of today. As a reminder, you can visit data sf. Org for the full tracker with information on what who has been diagnosed, the number of tests and other resources that are available or any questions you may have. And i want to just start today by reminding us really how far weve come from the very beginning. Weve made it our mission to slow the spread of this virus, to help those vulnerable populations, to keep people safe and were continuing to do all we can to do just that. Were still dealing with the number of cases in San Francisco and we also know that there will continue to be challenges and we will continue to see increases in the number of cases of the coronavirus as we continue to do testing. You know, it may seem like this will never end, but it will come to an end. And i want to be clear that although you may hear about San Francisco and how well were doing, that we are flattening the curve, now is definitely not the time to let up. I read a really great article in the San Francisco chronicle this weekend that talked about the spanish flu in 1918. Almost 100 years ago in september of 1918, the flu, the spanish flu hit San Francisco real hard and the city that we know and love, the resilient San Francisco, stepped up, reacted, closed schools, closed churches, required people to wear masks as this particular virus killed millions of people throughout the world and in the United States. Over 500,000 americans and 50 Million People worldwide. And so as San Francisco started to see based on its quick action, there were changes and we started to basically they probably didnt call it flattening the curve at that time, but thats exactly what they did. As the number of cases and deaths declined in november of 1918, they declared victory and went out in the streets, they party, they celebrated. Everyone was happy. They threw off their masks and moved on with their lives. And two days later, almost 2000 people died. And in addition to that, they dealt with this real challenge all the way into 1919 when people continued to be infected. The virus came back with a vengeance. And, unfortunately, it did take some time to get people back into a place of complying with the orders in order to try to protect Public Health. The gains they had made on the front end were all basically lost because they moved too quickly. And i tell that story about history to remind us that we need to look at what has happened in history to make sure that were not repeating the same mistakes. We are not asking you to shelter indoors, to stay at home and also expect that, you know, this is something that is comfortable for all of you. We know this is very challenging. That it has a Significant Impact on not only our physical health but our Mental Health. And yesterday i, with a doctor, we hosted a webinar to talk about our Mental Health and the challenges with family, with children, with isolation and with a number of things. And we wanted to make sure we had a resource available to the public to deal with that. Anyone can log on or call 311. If there is any information that you may need or someone to talk to during this very challenging time because the fact is its not over. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. We will get through this, but it is going to require time and its going to require patience like never before. I dont believe anyone on this earth has ever experienced anything like this before. As i said, the spanish flu was over a century ago. And here we are dealing with a pandemic of the same proportion. And i know that you would think that, especially in a place like San Francisco where we have cpmc and kaiser and ucsf and San Francisco general and all of these incredible hospitals and Research Labs and doctors and all of this great science and technology that 100 years later we should not be in a situation we are in where were requiring people to stay at home. But the fact is we are. Public health is in jeopardy. And because of your work and your compliance with this order, we have done a great job and maintaining even as we see the number of cases increase every day, even as we see the number of, sadly, deaths continue to increase. Were still in a better place and it has everything to do with the people of San Francisco for the most part complying with the orders. Now is not the time to let up and get comfortable. Especially as we see the weather has gotten a lot better. Everyone probably wants to go outside and hang out. They want to see friends, family. Unfortunately, this is not the time to let up. And were still in this. We still need to get through this. And we still need your cooperation to do just that. I want to express again my appreciation. Of course, do what you can to get your fresh air and take your walks. Make sure youre taking care of our Mental Health as well, because that is also a critical thing that we will need do in order to get through this together. So thank you again for cooperating and i want to talk a little bit today about the future. And what you know San Francisco looks like as we begin to reopen our city. I want to be clear, we dont know when that is going to be, but what we do know, its going to be different than what it was before. The governor talked about in his press conference yesterday that there will be changes and we need to prepare for those changes, because we wont be completely out of the woods as it relates to this virus even as we gradually may reopen the city. There is still a twoyear time period almost before we could even maybe have a vaccine. And so we just have to be mindful that its important that we live in reality, we live in reality with what we have in terms of our capacity, in terms of our equipment, in terms of what we can do around testing and the kinds of things that are going to help support our communities. And also we marry that reality with science, with data, and we make good decisions in order to protect Public Health. And as we come out of this, what does that really look like . What are some of the things that were going to need to do to continue to protect the public . As i mentioned before, we have Incredible Health institutions here in San Francisco and many of you are familiar with ucsf and amazing doctors and clinicians and researchers, the work they do is world renowned in terms breakthrough science data. In fact, one of the things weve been talking about, is mayor breed im mayor london breed, mayor of San Francisco. I am joined by the director of Public Health, grant cofax, trent roar, the director of homelessness and housing abigail stewartkhan, the police chief, and the director of Emergency Management. Today wed like to provide an update and of course answer questions to the press during this Virtual Press conference. As of today, we have 1,216 confirmed cases of covid19 in San Francisco. Sadly, we have 20 people who passed away as a result of the virus. As a reminder, datasf. Org covid19 is where you can find details to find out who is actually infected as well as those who have been tested. I want to be clear from the very beginning when we heard about what was happening with the coronavir coronavirus, specifically in wuhan, china, sadly there were a lot of xenophobia of those in our asian community. This virus is not discriminating on the basis of race. Sadly, the xenophobia continues. We want our community to know we are here to provide the resources and the support necessary to deal with the challenges around discrimination. So its not tolerated here in San Francisco. In fact, as we look at the data and the inequities as it relates to covid19, we are seeing the disparities, true disparities around income and inequality and other things that have sadly been a part of our environment and our climate for so many years, that when there is a pandemic, those issues are heightened and made work and exacerbated as a result of this pandemic. Specifically people who might not have access to Good Health Care or conditions or outcomes are those most impacted. We see that people who live in crowded settings and congregate situations since day one, those are the most challenging as they are the most impacted by the virus. The data is what is helping to shape our understanding of this virus, as it relates to San Francisco. But it is also playing itself out throughout the country. Im really proud of this city because not only do we have an office of racial equity, from the very beginning when we operated this Emergency Operations center right here, from day one we put into effect an equity team, a team comprised of people who are familiar with various cultures and communities, with the sole purpose of providing the necessary support to educate people about the virus, the impacts, and also provide access to services. An example is from the very beginning when we were asking nonessential businesses to close and we had a number of nail salon that were still open where there was a language barrier. This particular team was a team that outreached to that particular business, to not only explain why it was necessary to close, but what other Small Business services are available. Our Public Housing and the residents of Public Housing who already are dealing with challenges around income and equality but also access to resources, to reach out to the neighborhood nonprofit organizations that work with residents of Public Housing and Affordable Housing to provide resources to food and an understanding about employment insurance and all of the Resources Available, it takes a lot of work. Typically you would walk up and fill out the paperwork with someone online, and now that work is a lot harder to do, requiring us to be creative and requiring more volunteers for outrea outreach. Maybe sure that those who are not connected to the internet or know how to use it, that we are supporting them so no one is left out. We are focused on if anything sure and director davis from the Human Rights Commission will talk more about some of the incredible things they are doing to help underserved communities in San Francisco. Some of the simple things, providing gift cards to families with food, providing help for filling out Unemployment Insurance applications. Providing assistance and understanding of some of the laws and things weve implemented in the city and making sure people are connected, informed, and supported through basic services. Its really key to supporting all of our residents and we have been doing this since day one. I want to take this opportunity to thank the nonprofit organizations and our faith leaders, because they are on the frontlines, communicating with their congregations, providing support and Delivery Services informally and on the ground doing everything they can to support their residents. I want to express my appreciation to so Many Community members who have taken it on themselves to ask Community Members who they may need, especially the people we know who are in isolation, their neighbors and everyone in this. This means we have to continue the acts of kindness and support for our neighbors. Speaking of neighbors, i want to talk a little bit about some additional things that we are going to be adding to our data tracker. People are of course interested in learning about this virus, not only by race and Health Disparities, but also by location. So today on the tracker well have information by zip code of where people are sadly who are diagnosed with coronavirus, what particular neighborhoods they live in. Again, it goes back to some of the disparity disparities we knew. We are seeing more cases, which is consistent with our findings that about 25 of those people who are infected in this city are latino. And the Latino Community represents 15 of the population. So there is a huge disparity there. We also see a large part of Homeless Population in sonoma being infected. I want to be clear what this map reveals information that helps us to understand where the cases are, but it in no way indicates that some parts of our city are safer than others. So i dont want us to get the idea that that is the case in any of our neighborhoods. This is really about gathering more information and doing everything we can to provide the public with everything we have just so that you are aware and so that you understand how important it is to continue to take the precautions we are asking you to do. Whether its wearing a Face Covering, whether its socially distancing yourself from anyone who is not a part of your household, and staying inside as much as you possibly can, except for essential services or to take a walk and get some fresh air. These steps are critical to doing exactly what we need to do to continue to flatten this curve in San Francisco. I also want to talk about many of the challenges that people continue to face. We early on put a moratorium on evictions for residents and our commercial businesses. We know that the water and the power will not be turned off as a result of this pandemic, which is i know helpful to help ease peoples minds just a little bit as we go through this real challenge. But ultimately we know that the biggest challenge will be access to food. Access to food in general, but also healthy food. And we know that communities where we have a lot of lowincome families, where people have lost their jobs, where in some cases they might not qualify for Unemployment Insurance, where our immigrant communities are afraid to maybe interact with the government in various communities. Here in San Francisco, i am so proud of the work we have done to really identify such a significant need to help provide a adverse population of people with food. I just want to talk a little bit about some of the things we are doing. Basically we recently launched a Pilot Program with the Salvation Army to make and deliver meals to people who are experiencing homelessness and those that are living in encampments. I know people are not necessarily happy with the encampments, but we realize those are people who also need food too. The Salvation Army will be partnering with us to make sure they get fed and that feels are delivered to them. As well as working with us on important programs to provide to those who are without a home. Thanks to their work, well be able to deliver 1300 meals daily to people across 40 locations in San Francisco. This is just one part of our massive undertaking to help get food to our vulnerable populations. Were also providing three meals a day to the people who are not only in our shelters but are in hotel rooms who we moved out of the shelters for the purposes of keeping people separated from one another so the virus doesnt continue to spread. I want to talk about the San Francisco unified school district. 319,000 people have been fed to date because even though, unfortunately, the schools had to close, there have been a number of people who showed up, folks making sure people had access to meals. More than 12,000 meals have been delivered by open hand, self help for the elderly, and our isolating and quarantining hotline. So what we announced last week was the ability for anyone who might experience isolation or no access to food to go to sfgov. Org or to call 311 so we can make sure groceries are delivered to families to our elderly or disabled residents who might not be able to get out and get food. I want to appreciate the food bank. Theyve set up 13 popup locations in the bayview and excelcior communities that are struggling. Some of the lowincome communities, theyve had a lot of volunteers. I visited one location where they are handing out food boxes and providing resources and they are doing that on a regular basis. Meals on wheels is a program that continues to deliver food to those who are disabled and elderly. Also, i want to take a moment to appreciate the countless san franciscans who are shopping for their neighborhoods, who are reaching out to people they know that need help. I know that one of my Staff Members here in the city has five seniors that she specifically shops for every single week. Those are the seniors shes committed to. I think it does absolutely amazing when people take on the responsibility of supporting their neighbors and doing what you can to make sure they have the resources that they need. The incredible people of this city who continue to reach out and do all that they can. So i think its clear that our goal is to make sure that no one is deprived of food during this pandemic. I just want to take a moment to appreciate the private sector. The people who have given to givesf. Weve collected almost 8 million in private money and partnered that with money from the city and county of San Francisco to provide support for people to access food. Its been absolutely incredible. Thank you to the San Francisco foundation and to give to sf. Ill talk about that more this week to acknowledge the contributors who have gone above and beyond to help with food and security around our city. I have to say, San Francisco has been a model in providing access to food to people all over this city. So if you know anyone you think needs help for any reason, please call 311 or go to our website sfgov. Org. Lets make sure no one goes hungry as a result of this pandemic. Jeff humlin is here to talk about some updates with regards to muni. I am really excited about his announcement today to add certain lines back into the fold, some new adjustments. I want to thank the transit operators, our muni operators. The folks who are cleaning the buses. The folks who are showing up every single day, putting their lives on the line, in order to get our essential workforce to their destinations. The hospitals, Grocery Stores, or places folks are making themselves available to the public because we know that people still need food, they need access to the hospitals, they need their medication and other things. People on the frontline getting folks without access to transportation any other way are our muni drivers. I want to take this moment to really appreciate them so much for their hard work and their dedication. And also the number of drivers who are coming back to work. Some were out sick. Some had concerns about their family members. I want to make it clear that the program we have for First Responders includes our muni drivers and those who are working every single day. So if youre concerned about your families and you want to come to work, which we desperately want you to come to work, and you want to stay here in San Francisco at a hotel room because you are concerned that you interact with thousands of members of the public and you dont want to put your families at risk, we are here for you because we need you and we appreciate all that you continue to do to support the people of this city. Jeff humlin will talk more about that in terms of an increase in service. I also want to remind people because as far as the Face Coverings, i want to be clear with people, you are not required to wear a mask specifically. Just anything that can cover your nose and your mouth when you are standing in line or in any location that provides an essential service. If youre out riding your bike, running, walking your dog, basically that is not necessarily a requirement to wear a Face Covering, but doing anything else where youre around other people, number one, it does not take the place of social distancing. Number two, youre required to wear a Face Covering. I want to reiterate that. Please follow our guidelines. Please use common sense so that we can keep you safe and others around you safe as well. Last but not least, today is april 20, 4 20. Its a time when in the past there would be a celebration with those who are marijuana enthusiastics at Golden Gate Park. We made it clear that it is canceled today. I want to express my appreciation to the ambassador of the bay e40, a rap artist who has been really a part of the fabric of our rap culture here in the bay area since i was in high school and so many people love and admire him. We appreciate his message of love and his expression to ask people to stay home this year. We hope you heed our message to stay home today and to not come to Golden Gate Park. So far, so good. We want to thank you for abiding by our direction on 4 20. We know its difficult because you want to celebrate. We want to celebrate so many things right now, but it is a matter of life and death. This is why were asking people in this city and everywhere to continue to not gather in large groups, to stay at home for the most part except for essential services, to use Face Coverings and common sense. Take care of yourselves and your family members so we can get through this as safely as possible. With that, i want to take this opportunity to introduce dr. Grant colfax to provide an update from the department of Public Health. Thank you, mayor breed. Good afternoon. Im dr. Grant colfax, director of health for the city and county of San Francisco. Today i am glad to bring forward more data on the effect of coronavirus in our community. I have consistently stressed the need to follow data, science, and facts in our collective response. Today is another step forward in that philosophy. The online tracker the online data tracker now includes a map that shows the approximately 1,200 people who have tested positive in the city, the number of these cases per zip code, as well as the rate at each location. This map shows us that some areas have higher rates than the rest of the city based on the testing that we have done so far. The map affirms what we already know about how this virus spreads. The population and locations in our city that are most affected by Health Disparities, by income inequality, and by structural rates of them are also going to be the areas most affected by this pandemic. Unfortunately, Health Emergencies exploit the inequalities in society. People with chronic illnesses, Underlying Health conditions, and from communities who have experienced institutionalized stigma and discrimination are going to be more at risk for getting sick. This map is sobering, but unfortunately it is not surprising. Unfortunately, it looks like many other maps in San Francisco, including those that depict Health Disparities, income inequality, and racial and ethnic inequities. And yet, this map also supports our focus on equity in vulnerable population in our collective response to this pandemic. We must make progress in reducing the spread of coronavirus everywhere, everywhere, in our city or we will not emerge from this pandemic. Even though our rates of the data are still incomplete because about a third of test results we receive do not include this information, i still felt it was important to start sharing the emerging picture now. Let me walk through the map and explain what it does and does not tell us. The map shows confirmed cases of coronavirus in San Francisco by zip code. It is based and this is very important it is based on the number of people we have tested. As you know, we have not testing nearly everyone. As of today, there are about 11,250 tests that had been reported in San Francisco. About 1,200 are positive. The citywide rate of the tests of the positive tests of the tests that had been done is 14. 07 per 10,000 people. Again, this is important. The map does not show the prevalence or the total number of covid19 cases in the zip code because most people have not been tested. And i want to stress that no zip code or neighborhood is inherently safer than another. Every san franciscan should continue to exercise precautions. This map should not make anyone feel more relaxed or, at the same time, more fearful. The number of cases diagnosed in the city, just over 1,200, are small compared to the overall San Francisco population, which is over 800,000. All san franciscans have been doing a tremendous job of slowing the spread of the virus. The map itself does not answer questions about why there are more cases in some areas than others. It is descriptive data based on the zip codes of people with positive test results. The map shows case counts and simple rates based on dividing the positive cases of those tested by the total population of each zip code. When we look to explain these data, we think of factors that are associated with being diagnosed with covid19. The risk factors for getting sick include circumstances such as whether people are living in crowded conditions and whether they have sufficient support to stay at home and reduce their outings. The risk factors for becoming seriously ill or dying after getting sick include reasons such as age and Underlying Health conditions. The areas of the city with the most cases so far match up with these factors. Let me give two examples. The 94107 zip code currently is one of the highest rates of cases in the city. That makes sense from what we know because the m. S. C. South shelter is in that zip code, which is the location of the citys largest outbreak, with 96 cases among guests to date. The 94110 zip code has among the highest number of cases in the city. This likely reflects crowded housing conditions, including multifamily and multigenerational homes, which makes it more difficult to practice social distancing and quarantine and selfisolation. This is the mission, the heart of San Franciscos Latino Community. Citywide 25 of positive covid19 cases are among latinos, although they make up only 15 of the San Francisco population. Now i would like to talk about our ongoing strategy at the Health Department to focus on equity in our coronavirus response. These maps reinforce our need to continue to do this. We are committed to addressing Health Disparities in our city, and this is a major focus of our work in normal times. It is made all the more urgent in todays emergency. During this pandemic we have from the beginning know that existing inequity exists that exists in our system would be amplified. We have been working with Community Leaders and supporting outreach to community in multiple ways. We remain committed to listening and collaborating and taking action with the mostaffected communities and communitybased organizations. In our response we have an equity officer, as does the city as a whole, and a Community Branch that develops strategy to ensure that communities that are affected by structures of racism and other discrimination are getting the information and services needed. We know it is critical to have trusted messengers as we engage with communities, in order to improve health and wellbeing in the most vulnerable populations. I am, the department is, the city is committed to working with our frontline providers, communitybased organizations, and neighborhood leaders to address this pandemic. As we are seeing more cases in the Latino Community, we have been working with Community Leaders to ensure people have the information they need, that they are aware of available resources, and that they receive outreach in their own language. We need to do everything we can to support them and we see People Living in crowded households who have to work and make several trips a week to get food and other essential supplies. They cannot do one big grocery shop due to income limitations and other potential limitations. People in these circumstances are going to be more at risk. We are seeing that play out, unfortunately, with a disproportionate number of cases in the Latino Community. At zuckerberg hospital, we have seen more than 85 of the coronavirus patients there are latino, which is a much higher rate of the patient population, which is about 30 of latino representation. We have also learned that some members of the Latino Community are reluctant to work with contact tracers and case investigators. This is certainly understanda e understandable. It is possible that they are fearful of local government, concerned about immigration, or simply dont have all the information they need to be comfortable. Therefore we are providing language support in spanish and in other languages about the Contact Tracing program and public materials about the stayathome order and also with regard to Face Coverings and other ways people can protect themselves. In addition, we are being responsive to Community Needs for more inclusive messaging and materials to create a wide range of Spanish Language and yucatan Mayan Community outreach information, including posters, fact sheets, and community posts. Community organizations have stayed in close contact through phone and email with their latino clients and many are doing community outreach. These are key partners in our collective response, especially given the xenophobia and antiimmigration aspects of how this pandemic is being played out at the national level. After learning that some members of the community are reluctant to work with contact tracers, we held a webinar geared toward spanishlanguage media. We conducted an example in spanish and said that this has no bearing on the work and whether people will receive care here in San Francisco. We are, after all, a sanctuary city. Our Health Branch along with community organizations, supports essential businesses in the community to maintain social distancing as part of their operati operations. We have opened covid19 symptom screening and testing sites in the community, including at the Castro Mission Health Center and at zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital in the heart of the mission. And we are coordinating with a new ucsf Research Study based in the mission to learn more about the spread of the virus in the Latino Community. We will continue to do outreach to inform the Latino Community about the coronavirus and the Resources Available to them. In addition to the Latino Community, we are looking closely at all the neighborhoods and Community Members that may need more access to care, information, and resources. That is why the Health Department opened the first field care clinic in San Francisco in the bayview. This clinic will ensure that neighborhood residents have access to coronavirus testing, urgent and primary care for the duration of the pandemic, no matter how full the hospitals get. In another community collaboration, the Health Department works closely with the San Francisco africanamerican faithbased coalition to inform and educate Community Members through their congregation. We are currently working with them on Food Distribution so that Community Members continue to have access to foods close to their homes. We have also been supporting the health of the community in soma and in the chinatown areas for mandated s. R. O. S, including mandated cleaning and other outreach for these diverse neighborhoods. In the Homeless Community we have increased social distancing and food access in shelters and have been moving people from shelters into hotels for their safety. To date, nearly 750 people experiencing homelessness have been placed in hotels in collaboration with the Human Services agency. We have responded aggressively to an outbreak at m. S. C. South, conducting contact investigations, mass testing, moving everyone out, and deep cleaning the building. James from the Health Department and the community continue to provide outreach outside and on the streets, providing food, water, and information about hand washing stations and linking them to support and care. These are a few examples and we must continue to listen to Community Partners and prove our response and use data to take action and guide our decision. I am committed to the health and wellbeing of all san franciscans and doing everything we can to support health and full recovery for all communities in our city during and after this pandemic. Thank you. Director sheryl davis of the Human Rights Commission will now make some remarks with regard to Additional Support within the community. Good afternoon. My name is sheryl davis. I serve as the director of the Human Rights Commission here in San Francisco. The Human Rights Commission is tasked with identifying and disrupting racism and discrimination trends in government and private Business Practices here in San Francisco. I want to thank mayor breed and dr. Colfax for the information theyve shared today, this afternoon. Nationally, this virus has woven an exceptionally cruel path through our most vulnerable populations. We are working to ensure that this Health Emergency does not further exacerbate the existing Health Disparities we struggled to address before the coronavirus appeared. To also make the connection that these Public Health disparities are connected to economic and poverty and to homelessness and to geographic areas where people are living in difficult situations. We knew this would be a challenge long before we had any data. They have been addressing these things long before we had the data. People in these areas experience Structural Racism in ways that are affecting their health and their income, which makes contracting the coronavirus more likely and more lethal. Beyond the physical health, the Economic Impacts of covid19 are yet to be realized. Nationally, people of color and lowincome communities are being hardest hit by the coronavirus. Communities of color are more likely to work in essential jobs such as janitors, home health aids, delivery people, grocery, and farm workers, all serve industry positions with strong opportunities for exposure. The existing disparities of low income, the academic achievement gap, opportunity gap, contribute to these disparities that we are seeing. We need to shift how our systems partner and collaborate with those most impacted to change outcomes, not just during this crisis, but moving forward. Were excited that we have had the ability to really leverage relationships and work that was already happening in community to address this. I want to acknowledge as we work to address food insecurity, as we talk about Public Health and health and wellness, a lot of people in community that were already struggling were doing this work. I want to make sure as we move forward that we recognize this. As this has been heightened and as awareness comes up, people want to remind us that they already knew this, were living with this, experienced this, and they appreciate there is a heightened awareness and attention to them, but lets not forget the work that was being done before this pandemic. We are trusting the resilient communities most exposed to guide a community response, for those people to remain safe, prepared and healthy. Working with groups like the Latino Task Force or the samoan Development Center or communities as one, we have found a way to leverage and come together to build partnerships. Mayor breed directed the partnership to work with stakeholders to explore how our systems contribute to the inequities that we see. And to develop strategies to improve outcomes for lowincome people and communities of color. Outside the shelter in place order in early march, we launched our Community Roundtable meeting, to bring together Community Stakeholders and to address these issues. Again, people were doing this work and working to address these challenges. This approach means ensuring essential needs, including providing over 1,500 hot meals each day to 20 housing sites throughout San Francisco in partnership with sfnewdeal and our hope s. F. Sites. We have been working along with the s. F. P. D. To distribute Face Coverings and information about social distancing. Working in partnership with our communities, our street Violence Prevention Program and our faithbased leaders. Today we delivered over a thousand Face Coverings in the tenderloin and the western edition. This week we will work in partnership with s. F. P. D. To do some caravans, to distribute Face Coverings, to share information about social distancing, and working with trusted messengers to share that message. We have been supplying essential household needs directly to community to minimize the time they have to spend outside. As the mayor mentioned, weve been giving gift cards out to families and working with seniors so they can purchase things online using those cards. Weve been developing Distance Learning materials and distributing thousands of books, computers, and activity sheets throughout communities that have not only been hit by coronavirus, but prior to this pandemic and having this shelter in place were struggling with the achievement and opportunity gap. We are trying to work with our partners that ensure that after this is over those gaps are not wider. We have been partnering with the equity studies task force to develop strategies to allow us not only to address what is happening now but to be more intentional moving forward. Closing the Digital Divide by providing equipment for students. We were able to purchase hundreds of computers in partnership with the Housing Authority and hope s. F. As well as with rafiki, Young Community developers and collective impacts. We are working with them to distribute the equipment. We have been supporting trusted Community Care ambassadors. Really working to make sure that we recognize the people who have existing relationships that have the ability to go into communities and ask people to social distance, to see what their needs are, and to meet those needs. They have helped to distribute flyers. We have been able to also offer gift cards and personal protective equipment for them as they go out and do that work. We have been launching successful webinars focused on our africanamerican asianpacific islander, and Latino Community and also by focus areas working with our faithbased communities, lgbtq communities, and working with education and doing some work around geography. Organizing a Community Care event, as i mentioned earlier, where we are working with the Police Department, the faithbased groups and our local Community Stakeholders to make sure folks are aware of the new rules around Face Coverings and to make sure they have what they need to follow that order. We have been working with blackled Media Outlets and developing a Communications Strategy to email, text, and post on social media, targeting our most vulnerable population. Again, in partnership with communities that already have those relationships. People who are already posting on social media maybe their friends and their family would be more inclined to work with them and listen to them than they would be to sfpd. We have been able to build and develop our relationships. Centering strategic partnership. We have developed a partnership with schools, schools like hilltop for the pregnant parenting teens. To be intentional and think about how those people can help others. Working with the Mayors Office on the implementation of the Family Relief Fund and what it looks like for us to be very intentional and make sure that we are not leaving out any families. Our Civil Rights Division at the Human Rights Commission is continuing to process complaints of discrimination and manage inquiries that people may have about what their rights are during this time. We were grateful to work with the Emergency Operations center and to be able to embed an equity officer at the Emergency Operations center, focusing on ensuring our Disaster Response is intersectional and doesnt exacerbate preexisting structural issues. At the Human Rights Commission we have allocated nearly 1 million for emergency funding and to address many of the needs that have been identified earlier. We are working with our lgbtq2 communities around housing and food security. We are working with our nonprofits, and again to thank the nonprofits who have been leading that work to provide housing, food security, and to provide gift cards. And to think about our youth and transitional age group, they are concerned with what happens through this process. As we are thinking about employment and economic recovery, a lot of our young people are very concerned. They have been contributing through the years to their families household income. Last but not least, i want to thank the people and organizational partners for their dedication and commitment to serving our community. People have stepped up, as the mayor said, individually and collectively. Organizations have stepped up. They have put themselves at risk. They are distributing food and books. They are figuring out how to utilize the internet. When one part of the city is hurting, we are all hurting. As we move towards recovery, our fight will not be just against a virus. Dr. King talked about fighting our finite disappointment with infinite hope. Despite the data disappointments that we have, we believe that working together we can actually make a difference. We are looking forward to overcoming this at this point in time, but staying connected and working collectively to address the disparities that have only been heightened during this pandemic. After me, it will be jeff tumlin from the director of sfmta who will speak. Thank you. Thank you, director davis. I am jeff tumlin. As all of you know, on april 8th, we made deep and painful cuts to muni service. Now thanks to the leadership of mayor london breed and the support of half a dozens departments in the citys Emergency Operations center, along with the support of over 100 Disaster Service workers in my agency, people whose normal work is being a clerk or a middle manager, who are now supporting us in car cleaning, im very pleased to announce that weve begun our efforts to restore muni service. Starting april 25, we are going to be bringing back portions at least of four muni lines and were bringing those lines back using the same process we used to cut muni service. We used our abundant data looking at where our riders are. We also used our data about where essential services are. Most importantly, we looked at where are the riders who have the fewest choices and neighborhoods who have suffered the most from historic disinvestment. Finally, weve listened to a lot of feedback from our riders and from various communitybased organizations about where service was needed the most. The five lines were going to be bringing back include a portion of the 5 fulton running from 6 and fulton to downtown, serving st. Marys hospital and the western tenderloin. Well be bringing back a portion of the 12 fulsome, running from battery street to mena, serving chinatown, the chinese hospital, and a corridor full of seniors who have limited access to other forms of transportation. Were also bringing back, thanks to lots of community feedback, a portion of the 2819 avenue running up 19 avenue and making important connections to the end, serving ucsf and serving three hospitals on geary avenue. Finally, were bringing back most of the 54 felton, which runs through a long series of neighborhoods, including hunters point, bayview, the portal district, the excelcior, amazon, and connecting to balboa station. We also started improving Service Frequency on the 9, the n, and the l, based on data that we have inadequate space for our passengers and crowding. This is a reminder that even though were starting to bring service back, please do not ride muni unless you are an essential worker, making an essential trip, and unless you dont have another choice. Its important that if you do have other options than riding muni, please take them and save a seat and a space for the essential workers who have no other choice. Many parts of San Francisco are still left without nearby muni service. I would like to remind you if you are over 65 or disabled to please sign up for our essential trip card, which provides deep discounts on taxi service in order for you all to access essential services. As always, you can find the latest and most uptodate detail at sfmta. Com covid. Thank you again for your patience. Were all in this together. Now i would like to introduce the chief of the San Francisco Police Department, chief william scott. Thank you, chief scott. Thank you, director tomlin. Good afternoon, everyone. First of all, again, id like to thank our mayor, mayor london breed, and our director of Public Health, grant colfax, for their leadership during this very challenging time. I want to update you on our enforcement efforts of the Public Health order and give you an update of this weekends activities. This weekend we had a very visible presence in our citys parks and other public areas to remind people of the Public Health order. The vast majority of the public, as weve said in many other of these press conferences, have been compliant with the measures meant to stop the spread of covid19. With that said, we continue to cite people and businesses who after being warned continue to flout the Public Health order. To date weve cited 16 such persons and that breakdown is seven businesses and nine individuals who were violating either the countys Public Health order and or the states Public Health order. We admonished 67 between businesses and individuals, we issued 67 formal admonishments. That means an incident report has been taken. In addition to that, we have had dozens of informal warnings, warning people to abide by the health order and social distance. An update on our Crime Statistics for the week. During the fifth week of the shelterinplace order which was from april 13 to april 19, we saw an increase in Violent Crimes, which was led by 11 additional robberies over the previous week and two additional assaults. We saw 31 decrease in part 1 property crime, which was 154 fewer property crimes from the previous week. There was a 25 decrease in part 1 crimes. That means there were 142 fewer crimes than the previous week. This is compared to the week of april 6 through april 12, which was the fourth week of the shelterinplace order. Again, weve had burglaries and vandalism of businesses. We continue to step up our patrols in that area to make sure our businesses are protected as much as we can protect them while they are closed. We have had some arrests in those cases. Again, i would like to thank our partnership with the District Attorney and his office. They have been able to add looting charges to 19 of these instances of burglary. We thank them for their partnership there. We encourage everyone to report all crimes, but do so in a way that helps to decrease facetoface contact and inhibit the spread of covid19. We have the crimereporting unit in place where you can call and make the report over the phone and you can report on the internet. Always call 911 to report Violent Crimes and crimes in progress and we will respond, as we always do, to the scene to make sure we do Everything Possible to investigate those crimes and arrest the offenders. Please make sure to make use of the citys new text 911 service, if you are unable to make a telephone call to report a crime, but you need emergency help. Particularly if it is a Domestic Violence situation, we want to emphasize the use of the text 911 feature. Some people arent able to safely make the phone call from their cellphones or home phones or landlines, that feature will allow you to text the police so we can get help to you. For crimes that have already happened, that includes nonviolent property crimes or crimes that have already occurred, please call our nonemergency line at 4155530123. You can still call 311 or utilize the website to file Police Reports and we encourage you to do that to help slow down the spread of covid19. Again, this is a National Crime victims rights week. Traditionally, this week is meant to reach out to Violent Crimes homicides. And there is an event in sacramento to honor the victims of these Violent Crimes and this year that will not occur. So we want to reach out to those victims and their families, to say we are still thinking about you and we are there if you need it. It is a time when we honor the survivors and their loved ones. Truly, if you need us, we will be there, the city and county of San Francisco, as well as the San Francisco Police Department. I want to reiterate the mayors comments about 4 20. So far, so good. I thank the members of the public who have stayed away from Golden Gate Park where this event is held. So far things are going really, really well. I want to thank everyone for that. But please keep this momentum going. This is literally a matter of life or death and i dont think im being mellowdramatic when i say that. Your intention to attend or not attend these gatherings could be the life of you or someone you love. We ask you to keep up the cooperation so we can continue to flatten the curve and slow down the spread of the virus. With that, id like to thank you all and i think we open it up for questions. Thank you. For those joining us virtually, the first set of questions are for dr. Grant colfax. Thank you, dr. Colfax. The first question is from molly solom solomon. Supervisor matt haney is introducing a resolution to provide free testing to all clients and staff in the homeless response system. Is universal testing possible for the citys Homeless Community and staff . If not, why. Answer so as ive talked about previously, we need to ensure that the population who are prioritized for testing are the people who need it most. That includes people who are symptomatic with covid19, people who have had highrisk exposures, healthcare workers, and First Responders. I want to say in those first few groups, there are a number of people experiencing homelessness who fit into those groups. We are also following the data, science, and facts in terms of how to prioritize testing when there is a positive case discovered. You will see in our approach from the m. S. C. South shelter to the case in the Division Circle Navigation Centers, following the information with the experts and the investigation teams, we take different approaches depending on the circumstances. At m. S. C. South it became clear there was a widespread outbreak and that is why we tested everyone in that shelter and we provided them with the care and support services that they required and needed and closed that shelter. Another approach was taken at the Navigation Center, where there was a case detected and there was contact investigation done and testing was done there on a more limited scale because at that time we didnt find an increased number of cases as a result of that investigation. As our Testing Capacity expands and as we are able to obtain more of the swabs and the gunk, the medium for transporting the testing materials, we will be testing more people. Based on state guidelines released this morning, the guidelines will include testing people who have had close contacts with covid19 cases, but who meet the definition of having a close contact, but does not exhibit symptoms. So that would be another place where we would be expanding our testing, including of course with people experiencing homelessness. The other places we are currently in discussions with and i think it makes sense is exploring where and when it would be appropriate to test people coming into the hospitals, patients coming into the hospital and what that would take. I think in some cases its easier to do that when you have one of these rapid tests that takes 45 minutes, but we obviously dont have nearly as many of those as the tests that take one to two days. Obviously we cant wait one to two days to admit somebody to the hospital. So my point is as we expand our Testing Capacity, we need to continue to follow the science and data about who needs the testing most, focus on the vulnerable populations, so that as we expand our testing and contact investigation, we are saving the most lives possible and focusing on those that are most vulnerable to dying from this disease, whether the person is housed or experiencing homelessness. Question a follow up. Have staff and residents at shelters and Navigation Centers already been tested . Answer yes. As ive said, we do this on a basis of what we have learned about the specific situations where there is a detected case. In the case of m. S. C. South, all the residents and the staff were tested in those situations. We will continue to test as guided by our disease investigations at shelters, Navigation Centers, and elsewhere in the city. Question next question. More than 60 people have tested positive for covid19 at the central garden assisted living facility. When did this outbreak get learned of and what support is the department giving to this facility . Answer the latest numbers i have from that facility is that a total of 67 cases have been detected in that facility. If i can do my math right, i believe its 39 residents and 28 staff. So it is a very serious outbreak. The state has oversite of these facilities and they are the lead agency in this. But when we became aware and were notified of the initial cases on march 30, we immediately started collaborating with the facility and with the state in terms of ensuring that as much was being done as possible to protect both the residents and the staff. And i would say that one of the key things that were ensuring is that the Lessons Learned with the c. D. C. Investigation, the twoweek c. D. C. Investigation at laguna honda are being applied to this facility as well. So very concerned. I said from the beginning and many said from the beginning that Nursing Homes and other congregate living situations for older adults are a major area where, unfortunately, people will suffer from this disease. Were doing everything we can to mitigate the spread of the virus, both in this facility and in facilities across the city. Question how many Homeless People to date have tested positive for the virus in. Answer so as weve described in m. S. C. South, we have a total of 96 positive cases there. Weve had several additional cases in other shelters and Navigation Centers across the city. I do not have a total number of to share with you at this time. That is really because much of the testing thats been done across the city, theres no requirement to record Housing Status and our data team is working hard to provide better estimates based on hospital numbers and our own d. P. H. Systems to try to crossmatch the data with the positivity thats on the testing form with a hospital admission data that are under d. P. H. s jurisdiction. I hope to share that soon. Question are you confident you know the rate of infection in the Homeless Population and are there any plans to expand testing for the homeless, as is being done in l. A. County . Answer i think as i mentioned with regard to to the data tracker and the map that i showed, its important that see that the rates that were presenting are the rates that are based on the positive test results of the people who have been tested in the city. So no, we do not know the true rate, if you will, of coronavirus of populations in the city. We dont know that for the state, regionally, or nationally. What we are doing is ensuring that we are testing people again who are at most risk for the disease based on their symptoms and close contacts. We will be expanding our testing criteria as the materials we need to do the testing, as it becomes clear we will be getting more of that, as our response is able to have more reliable sources of those materials, we will be expanding the testing including close contacts of people with covid19 for people who do not show those symptoms. Currently you have to have symptoms consistent with covid19 and be a close contact in terms of being tested. So we will be expanding our testing criteria, including for people experiencing homelessness. Question the next question is from mission local. Is there a possibility that california, like new york, will begin to produce its own supply of testing swabs . Answer i would its a possibility. I dont have any Additional Information to speculate on that at this time. Question the next question is from the s. F. Examiner. What is the next type of dataset you plan to release to the public on datasf and when . Answer we have quite a bit of data on the data tracker at this time and we are continually updating that information. I dont have a specific timeline to share with you about what would next be released. I do want to ensure you that the relevant data are accurate and it helps inform the public that its my commitment at the Health Department to ensure that we are sharing accurate data as quickly and as transparently as possible with the public to help them better understand the dynamics of the pandemic in San Francisco. Question as a follow up. Will the Department Release zip code data for death . Answer well, i think one of the key things there are two things i think to emphasize right now about the response in San Francisco. One is if you go to the data tracker and you see the numbers of hospitalizations, both in general and in the i. C. U. , those numbers have been fairly flat over the last two weeks, which is again a testament to the response of all san franciscans in terms of taking this pandemic really seriously. When we keep talking about flattening the curve. Remember, we are looking at the hospitalizations because those are the people that are sick and need our help the most. Right now, our system is able to has enough capacity to manage those most seriously ill people. The curve looks flat. That could change at any time, but for now its important to note that we have the capacity. Going back to the question, we have had unfortunately 20 deaths, and obviously thats concerning to me and my condolences goes out to the family members and friends and community of the people who have died. That number is still relatively small compared to other jurisdictions. I expect those numbers to increase and as those numbers do increase, we will share data as appropriate on our data tracker. Question thank you. Delores park was apparently crowded this sunday. Are you concerned all of our efforts to go to waste as the weather improves and more people visit parks . Answer i think its important for people to continue to ensure the social distancing guidelines are followed. That people take the proper precautions in terms of washing your hands, other infection precautions that weve talked about. As you do go to work as an essential worker, that you do not go if youre sick, that we adhere to the facial guidelines that were issued, that we do not become complacent. The curve that i talked about is relatively flat is because of the work, the hard work that all san franciscans are doing in terms of complying with this order. I think its important that we enforce and recommit ourselves to this. Because as the weather gets better, i will say, this is hard to do. Its stressful and becomes tiring. Its even harder to deal with situations that weve seen elsewhere. We really need to continue to commit ourselves to taking the social distancing and other Public Health measures necessary until we start seeing signs that the shelterinplace orders could be relaxed in a scientific and datadriven way as we move forward into potentially another stage of this epidemic. Thank you. That concludes todays press role call item 2 is pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america and to the republican for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Please be advised the ringing of and use of cell phones and pages are prohibited at this meeting. And be advised the chair may remove anybody using a cell cell phone or Electronic Device and the public has up to three minute to make pertinent comments unless the Port Commissioner dubs a shorter period. The moderator will instruct dialin participants to use touchtone phones to register any desire tor Public Comment. Comments will be taken first from inperson participants and then dialedin participants. Audio prompts will signal to dial in when the input has been enabled for commenting. The comply with the declaration for covid19, that you remain an arms length distance. We are not requiring speakers to fill out a card but speakers can go up to the podium one one at a time or queue up in line but please maintain the social distance. Item 4, declaration of emergency Port Commission meeting. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today whether in person or by phone. The mayor, the state of california and the federal government have declared that the coronavirus pandemic is a Public Health emergency and ask that the people stay at home, which is where i am. The Mayors Office has determined that the Port Commission has an urgent need to take action on the matter before us to ensure Public Health, safety and essential Government Operations and has authorized the Port Commission to meet on this matter. I move that we hold this emergency meeting because of the coronavirus pandemic as an emergency that severely impairs Public Health and safety and the matter before us demands prompt action and is necessary to ensure that there is no disruption or threaten disruption to the public facility. Do i have a second . Second. All in favour . Thank you, commissioner. Item 5a, requests approval of resolution authorizing the executive director to recommend the memorandum between the port and the department of homelessness in support of housing to expand the capacity of embarcadaro centre due to the coronavirus outbreak. So moved. Good morning. I am the director of the communications for the port of San Francisco and i will make brief remarks and i will provide an overview of the proposed amendment to the ports mou with the department of homelessness and support of housing for operations at the embarcadaro centre on sea wall lot 330. The Commission Approved the existing agreement between the port and the department of homelessness in support of housing at the april 23rd, 2019 meeting. In declaring a local emergency in calling for all efforts to protect the health and safety of the public, the Mayors Office is asking the port and hsh, the department of Homeless Housing to revisit the embarcaro centre, the rampup. It calls for one change. The proposal is to change the rampup schedule articulated on page 10, section 11. 1 of the agreement under permanent uses to allow hsh to expand bed capacity beyond the rampup limit to accommodate the citywide coronavirus response. All other terms and conditions originally agreed to on april 23rd, 2019 would remain the same and not change. I have emily cohen here from the Mayors Office who will provide a short presentation articulating the urgent need for the amendment, as well as unupdate on the state Navigation Centre operation. After the proceedings, we will be available to anticipation any questions. Answer any questions. Good morning. This is emily cohen, the mayors policy advisor on homelessness and thank you for convening today and thank you to the members of the public who have joined either in person or via phone. Can everyone hear me all right . Yes. Thank you. Im going to walk you through a brief presentation as randy said and we are proposing an amendment to the mou between the port of San Francisco and the department of homelessness and support of housing and i want to give a little background context to this. As many folks know, the safe Navigation Centre, which is operated by five keys opened the end of december. It is currently operating at a capacity of 130 people each night. During the first two months of operations, all placements into space Navigation Centre were made by the Homeless Team working in the homeless zone in the immediate area of the Navigation Center. San francisco has two, twoperson teams working in the outreach zones fulltime and they have an additional twoperson team working with one shift and one on the weekends and folks are invited into the Navigation Center. Weve had a tremendous amount of success in engaging folks on the street in the area and inviting them indoors. As folks remember from the original mou, we designated both a safety zone and outreach zone within the safety zone which is smaller and immediately surrounds the center. Sfpd has applied beat officers to the zone seven days a week, five keys have been mentioned as the operator and made a phone call available where neighbors can call or text with concerns about the need area, the perimeter of the Navigation Center. As everyone in the room or on the call is well aware, we are facing a Public Health crisis, the covid19 or coronavirus. In response, mayor breed declared a state of month in february. When i put this presentation together a few days ago, there were 23 positive cases in the city of San Francisco but the course has continued to evolve. San francisco has taken serious steps to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus on our community, including the most recent shelter inplace ordinance issued by the Health Officer earlier this week, wellspan aaswell as declareing l emergency and one of the big areas has been focusing on, for me and my work focusing on the impact, the potential impact of the coronavirus on people experiencing homelessness or living in other congregate facilities. So weve allocated funding to enhance services at dropin centers, shelters, Navigation Centers and other congregate environments. As you can imagine, the coronavirus epidemic represents a Significant Health risk represents. People experiencings have limited access to preventative measures including hand washing, home isolation, avoiding hightouched surfaces and people experiencing homelessness may have more chronic conditions making them more vulnerable to the virus. As i mentioned before, we are taking proactive steps to protect the vulnerable population within the homelessness population, including expanding cleaning, expanding hours of programs, enhancing Meal Delivery for people in supported housing and occupancy hotels who have been advised to not go out because of their conditions. And were extending a lot of this operation not to the publically funded housing but to private owned sros and increasing or outreach. Weve deployed 30 handwashing stations for people unsheltered and bringing online rvs and hotel rooms, places where people can isolate and selfquarantine if theyve been exposed to the virus but dont have problems. So part of our need and part of our strategy for protecting people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco is to expand our shelter capacity. We want to mechanic sure that people experience homelessness have state places to be, abilit, hygiene, meals and other basic healthcare. As randy mentioned, there are currently 70 empty beds at the Embarcadaro Center due to what as lined up in the mou. As i mentioned earlier, there are 130 beds currently in operation and that was the agreement per month, one through three, of the Navigation Center and were due to expand to 165 beds for months four through six anand 200 beds in july. We feel we cannot wait until jusjuly to have access to the b. So the court is requesting an amendment to the mou to allow hsh to expand the bed capacity beyond that rampup limit, to accommodate the citywide emergency coronavirus response. This is my brief presentation and im happy to take additional questions from commissioners. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you, randy and emily for your presentation. Is there any Public Comment in the room . Yes, commissioner. Please state your name. Im elgin rose and we do outreach with hundreds of Homeless People i in the Tenderloin Community and outreach into tents. So the 70 beds opened that could be filled with people and could get rest and take in information is very important. And i think just making people feel like theyre a part of the population is a key to maybe making it better and taking this covid19 thing serious. So definitely, im here to support just getting more people with those beds and if anything else the tenderloin could be supportive of, we are interested in doing it. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, thank you for having me here today and also the people who are on the telephone. Im the executive director for the tenderloin and since this crisis hit, we have not shut our doors. We have a serious crisis on the streets. People are out there that dont know whats going on. Weve giving them soap and water and Hand Sanitizer and a lot of these people are elder people, grandmothers, grandfathers and these are handicapped people in wheelchairs and they need some place go. I walked through the tenderloin this morning and i saw easily 100 in two blocks living on the streets, who are dirty and being exposed. Im walking here through the Farmers Market and if thats not a lot to say. Like, we need to help these people and we need more beds. We had a young man who came to us, to our popup and said, you know what, ive been on the streets for three years but im scared right now and i want to go somewhere. Where can i go . A 22yearold man who finally had a revelation he wanted to change his life is still on the streets. So im here in support of expanding the beds and i hope we can move this forward. Everyone has that right. Thank you. My name is joseph norez and i work for the cotenderloin and ive lived in San Francisco for 26 years. I think that on monday, i was asked to come to work to get materials so that i could work at home and on the way to work, at the corner of golden gate and hide, which is one block from the federal building, there were tents, there was a shooting gallery right on the street and so, anybody thats gone through the tenderloin in the last few years or along market street, bart stations know that San Francisco has been the site of a National Health crisis for quite some time and in the last couple of weeks, its become exponentially worse. So common sense says that if our most atrisk individuals who already have a compromised immune system, off on or barista, were all vulnerable. We work with the most vulnerable and underserved people in our city and they need beds. Canary in the coal mines at golden gate and hide is taylor and jones and the bart station and they need help. Put to thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning, im an Education Coordinator and im a pastor. Im here to stay i support this for compassionate reasons. Like donna mentioned earlier, walking through the tenderloin in general, having worked in this area for over a year and a half, i see a lot of disparities and a lot of crime and pain and hurt and i see a lot of people who want find a way into a better life and better situation and now with whats happening with covid19, now theyre in even further danger. Every population, every culture and i feel the homeless situation in the tenderloin is a situation in itself and its not just the tenderloin. You have people in the bayview where i grew up. I grew up in San Francisco and people are hurting and right now covid is doin going after the ey and i want to support this effort and say we should move forward with the expansion of the beds and with helping these people as much as possible. We need someone to know how it and how we can help this effort. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thats the last speaker in the conference room. Thank you, amy and thank you everyone from the tenderloin. Any more Public Comment or inperson . No. So the inperson Public Comment is now closed. Now we will open up the phone lines to take Public Comment from members of the public who are joining us on the phone. Thank you, president brandon. At this time, well open the queue for anyone on the phone who would like to make Public Comments. In question is now in question and answer mode. To alert the speaker you have a question, press one and then zero. Please dial 10 on your phone and the system will add you. You will be entered into the system in the order you dialed 10. The system will let you know when its ready and others will wait. Public comments limited to three minutes per person. The queue is now open and please dial 10 if you wish to make a Public Comment. Thank you. Do we have anyone on the phone . There are five Public Comments via telephone. Please open the line to the first caller. Hello, earn. Everyone. Im a Community Member in rinkton hill, and im an immunologieimimmunologist. From a human standpoint, i can be on board but my concern lies from a health standpoint, specifically, if someone tests positive, what is the containment plan . Are all individuals contained to confinement and do they have an appropriate infrastructure . For example, like a pod or some sort of isolation tent . Additionally, if these individuals test positive or have an exposure, how will they be kept inside and liable to say inside of the Navigation Center or whatever facility theyre in. They should not be able come and go as they please, specifically for drug use. This will add to vulnerabilities and put further strain on the immune system and im not aware of any data about how withdrawal would influence the course of the Coronavirus Infection or another respiratory virus infection. With that said, i agree that is a vulnerable population, but it could ultimately turn into more of a risk and potentially an epicenter of a new wave of infections in San Francisco. So my question for the board or just in general is, what is your plan and how are you going to mitigate any risk . Thank you very much. Thank you. Does this new amendment allow the city to put more than 200 people in the Navigation Center or is it just to expand up to 200 . Thank you. Oh, and one more thing, is there a sundown period . I guess it wont matter. If its up to 200, it wont matter because it can stay up until 200, but if it goes over 200, is there a sundown period . In other words, does that end at a particular point in time . Thank you. Please state your name. My name is bruce goldetski. Thank you, bruce. Moving on to the next caller. Hi, commissioner and port. Im florence and i have the same concern that the first caller had about the crowding situation in the Navigation Center. Right now theres a lot of tents on main street, as you can see, and most residents are concerned about the virus spreading if they go into a shelter and im really concerned about their Health Situation if they were to be packed in even more and more beds were to be added. I would like to understand what kind of risk mitigations and procedures will take place if there are beds that will be added. Thank you. Thank you. Well continue to the next caller. My name is judy lynn and im a neighbor of the Navigation Center and i live at the watermark and i wanted to echo with the callers have stated already. I am all for expanding the shelter capability in general to help the homelessness but i think its the department of the homelessness needs a plan to mitigate risk to the Homeless Population while they reside in these shelters, particularly for the Navigation Center. Is it going to be reconfigured to keep the sixfeet distance while theyre sleeping or interacting and what are the Health Checks that will take place to keep the residents and staff safe, to determine if theyre trying to show symptoms. And also to echo the quarantine issue, if they do start to show symptoms, how will they be quarantined and kept separate from the other guests . And i just wanted to echo, what are we going to do about the 50 of the Navigation Center residents that are drug users, if they start exhibiting symptoms or need to be quarantined, does the staff have the kat capability to treat pose withdrawal symptoms . How are the rules in the Navigation Center going to change to comply with our current shelterinplace order . Earlier this week, we were seeing needles and people outside using drugs. And so those are my questions and i hope emily can address them. Thank you. We are moving on to the final phonein of the caller here. Hello, this is katie ladell and i sent a letter in yesterday and i do have some concerns that the previous speakers have, but in the meantime, weve got 130 people over there already, or 135 and we really do need to help these people out. I am also a neighbor. I walk by quite often and its very quiet over there and ive been inside a couple of times because ive taken over some donations. Its been a very good neighbor. Its been well run. I do encourage you to let executive director forbes give her permission to up the ante to 200. Thank you very much. Thank you. President brandon, at this time, there are no more members on the phone wishing to make Public Comment. Thank you. Seeing no more Public Comment, all Public Comment is closed. President brandon, if i may interject, i have an additional letter from wallace lee whom i would like to read into the Public Record with your permission. Ok. The letter is dated march 18th, 2020 and it was presented to presen president b. I am writing on a safe embarcadaro for seawall lot 330 to allow for the accelerated expansion of the center. Please support the actions the city believes to control the transmission of sarscov2 during this Public Health crisis and we do not oppose the accelerated expansion of the Navigation Center given the circumstances. However, we would be remiss not to bring to the commissions attention the many problems the nav center has brought to the neighborhood, even at the current size. An increase in public drug use, frequent use of war for drug sales and new incantments from those who moved as well as they say have a space in the Navigation Center but prefer to sleep indoors. This can be found in the attached. Its www. Safeembarcadaroforall. Sincerely wallace lee. And attached to his letter are several pictures which have been provided to you and can be uploaded to the ports website and that is the end of wallaces letter. Thank you. So randy or emily, do you want to respond to any of the callers comments or any of the Public Comment . Yes, thank you, president bran ton. Thibrandon. Im happy to respond to questions. And i think theres excellent questions around the safety in the Navigation Center and i want to assure folks that the department of homelessness and Supportive Housing is working very closely with our department of Emergency Management and department of Public Health to improve the safety of all of our congregate facilities, including this Navigation Center. So what that looks like is certainly enhanced cleaning of the site, disinfecting of frequently touched surfaces, handwashing stations, encouragement of good hygiene within the facility. Were also working with the department of Public Health to tea emplodeploy a health screenl for people coming into the Navigation Center and as folks come in, they will be asked a series of questions. If they answer question to a sensor numberacertain number, ar yes, they will be isolated in a certain area where they will ask for a Health Worker to come on site and do an assessment of their healthcare. If they distribute symptoms of the covid19, they will not permitted into the facility but in a selfquarantine isolation area unless their symptoms warrant hospitalization. So we have procured some rvs, trailers for this selfquarantine, as well as procuring hotel rooms for people exposed to the virus. And so folks who live in congregate facilities like homeless shelters. So the intent is really follow do everything we can to remove anybody from the Navigation Center displaying symptoms to have quarantine Spaces Available for them should they not warrant hospitalization and if somebody is exposed to the virus, similar precautions will be taken. So we hear that call and we share everybodys concern around the congregate environment. We are working on social distancing within the shelters across our shelter system and that will mean generally, that we could lose capacity in a number of shelters and thats why were working to identify so many more facilities where we can spread people out, too. These are, of course, for folks who are asymptomatic not exposed to somebody with the virus. For those symptomatic or who have tested positive, we will have a positive intervention for them. Again, the department of homelessness and support of housing is taking the lead from the department of Public Health on all of these protocols. Weve issued new policies and protocols to all of our shelter managers organizations so theyre aware of all of the resources that are available to them, how to interact somebody who demonstrates symptoms and how to get them the care that they need. Of course, access to supplies remains a challenge. Were all moving as quickly as possible, but we have deployed handwashing stations on the streets, as well as to some of the shelters that dont have as many sinks and showers as we would like and were trying to bring in supplemental services. I think that answers some of the questions. If commissioners have additional questions, i am happy to respond. One additional point to clarify some of the questions about the amendment and what it means. I wanted to rei reiterate the proposed amendment calls for only one change to the existing agreement and thats to change the rampup schedule as ar take articulated in 11. 1. In the presentation, emily eluded to what that rampup schedule would look like, existing agreement calls for 130 beds from months one through three and from months four through six, up to 165 and beginning in month seven, up to 200. The proposed amendment would change that rampup schedule so additional beds could be used now. No other terms or provisions of the existing mou would change. Just to clarify, there would be no more than 200 beds. Thank you, emily and randy. Is there any other information that the staff would like to share before i open it up to the commissioners . One other point is as weve been moving quickly to put together huge thank you to the port staff for the emergency meetings, i had the opportunity to talk with the vast majority of the states Navigation Center Advisory Group members, letting them know about this amendment and everyone i spoke to was largely supportive of this work. I will open it up to the commissioners and for the record, i would like to state that commissioner wuho had a conflict and she would like to express her support for more rampups in the capacity of a Navigation Center given the dire need to help the Homeless Community in this crisis. So i just want to make sure that is a part of the record. Commissioner gilman . Thank you, commissioner brandon. First of all, i want to thank all of our frontline nonprofit workers who are continuing to go to work everyday, particularly our Emergency Services staff. Too often nonprofit workers are not thought of by the public as First Responders, but theyre the ones keeping our shelters and Navigation Centers and Supportive Housing everyday. I want to thank emily for your work. I am fully supportive of the item. But i have one question for emily. They want to procure hotels and for people who need to selfquarantine or symptomatic but he called for the priorization for people vulnerable to the illness or folks over 60 in the Homeless Population to be sheltered first. My question is, are you looking at that population first for priorization into the Navigation Center or will you use coordinated entry . Thats a great question. Thank you, commissioner gillman. We are looking at the governors guidance that came out yesterday and working with the department of Public Health to put together our priorization tool, but people with preexisting conditions, people over 65 are our priority to serve. Thank you. That concludes my questions. Can you please speak into the microphone. I support this Navigation Center. Vice president adams. I want to thank the community for coming out. I want to thank mayor breed for leadership and this is a situation we must act swiftly. We saw that this is coronavirus and the federal government removed in a swift manner and thats why were behind the 8ball. There was a lot of good questions and a lot of good concerns. But this coronavirus is an enemy, an enm enemy and we cane it. This is a life and death matter. Its a National Crisis and a world crisis. Were talking about our community. We must act swiftly and i live a block from the Navigation Center and we must provide for the beds and we must move. If we dont, i think there will be a price to pay. So i support it and i would ask my fellow commissioners to support it unanimously. Thank you. Emily and randy, thank you again for this presentation and thank you for all of the the work youve done to bring it to this point. I would like to thank mayor breed for having the foresight to having this facility available for our very vulnerable population and to show the need for so many more beds. This is a crisis and hopefully, we can get out in front of this and make sure this population is taken care of along with all of our other City Residents and its a small part that we can play and i want to thank the community. I want to thank our Advisory Group and i want to thank everyone supporting this item, because we really need it. So with that, all in favour . Commissioner, we need to have a role call vote for resolution number 2016. role call all in favour, thank you, commissioners. So resolution 2016 has passed. Thank you. Thank you, commissioners. Thank you. Can i have a motion to ajourn . Motion to ajourn. Is there a second . Yes, second. All in favour . The meeting is adjourned at 10 40 a. M. Thank you, commissioners. Thank you, everyone. Good afternoon. Welcome to