Coronavirus Update: San Francisco Officials Report 2 New Deaths; Confirmed Cases Top 1,000
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Health officials reported Wednesday two new COVID-19 related deaths among San Francisco residents and 17 new confirmed cases, including a staffer at the city's sprawling Laguna Honda senior care facility.
San Francisco officials did not release the latest victims ages, gender, how they may have contracted the disease or where their deaths occurred.
As of Wednesday morning, 17 San Francisco residents had lost their lives to the virus since the outbreak began in February. When it came to confirmed cases in the outbreak, the latest positive results in the city elevated the number to 1,013.
Officials said Laguna Honda Hospital currently had 18 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Fourteen of the confirmed cases were staff members and four were residents. Of staff, 11 have been in patient-care positions and three have not.
"We expect more cases of COVID-19 in the Laguna Honda community, among staff and residents, because the virus is now spreading throughout the Bay Area," officials said in a release.
Of the positive cases, 53 percent have been traced to local exposure. To gain a great handle on extend the coronavirus was circulating in the local community, San Francisco health officials unveiled an innovative high-tech system Wednesday for tracking residents who have had contact with someone infected with COVID-19.
"We are committed to doing everything we can to slow the spread of COVID-19 in San Francisco," said Mayor London Breed in a press release. "At the same time, we need to look ahead and plan for how we will eventually go about easing the stay home order while continuing to protect public health. When the time comes to make changes to the order, we need this contact tracing program in place so that we're equipped to respond to new cases and keep the virus from spreading out of control."
The new program is a partnership between San Francisco's Department of Public Health, UCSF, and DIMAGI, a software company that has been working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to digitize a workflow to support contact tracing and monitoring of people who are potentially infected with COVID-19.
"Today, we are laser focused on the health emergency in our city," said San Francisco Pubic Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax. "We are doing everything we can to reduce the spread of the virus in our community, protect vulnerable populations, health care workers and first responders. But even as we respond to outbreaks now, we are looking ahead."
The new program will engage with individuals who test positive for COVID-19 to identify whom they have had contact with in recent days.
Specially trained outreach workers will then follow up remotely with any individuals identified by the patient. The conversations will be voluntary, confidential, and culturally and linguistically appropriate. Immigration status will have no bearing on these conversations.