Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Special Rules Committee 20240713

Welcome to the april 13, 2020 meeting. I am joined by Video Conference with vice chair supervisor stephanie and supervisor gordon mar and id like to thank sf gov tv for staffing this meeting. Any announcements . To protect members, City Employees and the public, the legislative chamber and k Committee Rooms are closed. However, members will be participating remotely at the same extent as if they were present. Public comment will be available for each item on this agenda, both the channel 26 and sfgov. Org are streaming across the screen. Call 888 2045504. When you are connected, dial 1 and then 0 to be added to the key. You will be lined up in the system that you dial 1 and 0. While youre waiting, the system will be silent and notify you when youre in line and waiting. All will remain online. Everyone must account for the time delay between live coverage and streaming. Alternatively, you may submit Public Comment in either of the following ways, email me at victor young. If you submit Public Comment via email, it will be included as part of the matter. Written comments may be sent to city hall 1, doctor carlton b. Goodlet place, San Francisco, california, 94102. That completes my announcements. Thank you so much, and can you please read item number one . An emergency ordinance to temporarily require private employers with 500 or more employees to provide emergency leave during the Public Health emergency related to covid19. Thank you. Any opening comments . Thank you, chair ronen. Colleagues, as you may recall, this item is to move forward one amendment that was made to the Public Health Emergency League ordinance at last weeks Roll Committee meeting. The amendments that were considering to the Public Health emergency leave ordinance applies to section 5 and it pertains to allowable uses of emergency leads and only applies to employees who are Healthcare Providers and this amendment was crafted to balance the need for Healthcare Providers and similarly are healthcare workers to be able to take time off when theyre sick or need to quarantine and balance that need with the urgent need of maintaining our healthcare wor workforce. To thithis provides leave whose employers can opt out of the leave expansion. And it goes without saying that Healthcare Providers should gott go to work when sick or quarantined. This ordinance will give them expanded pay leave to use if theyre sick or quarantined. We know that pfizer sent a letter asking for an exemption but we disagree that Healthcare Providers should be exempt. Theres been discussion with the Hospital Council and northeast medical services, a major nonprofit Healthcare Clinic that has a significant place in my district. If healthcare employers are offering paid leave, it will count towards the additional 80 hours and to ensure we dont short staff this ordinance. Its uses are incredibly narrow and only apply in cases where its in the interest of Public Health for Healthcare Providers not to go to work. And it does not allow uses of Public Health emergency leaves by Healthcare Providers for a border range of uses that are allowed for workers at businesses with more than 500 employees that are covered by the Public Health emergency leave ordinance. So colleagues, i thank you for your support in the Public Health emergency leave ordinance last week and also that the full board last week and without your support, im moving this further amendment that would provide additional leave for Healthcare Providers in a more similar range of uses. Thank you, supervisor mar. Supervisor stephanie, my comments . No, i dont, thank you. Why dont we open this item up for Public Comment. Mr. Clerk, is there any members of the public who wish to speak on this item . Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment should call the number and present 1 and 0 to line up to speak. Please allow me to check the cue. No problem. No callers wishing to speak. With that, Public Comment is closed. Im happy to make a motion to put this to the full board to the committee with full recommendation. Can we take a role call on that motion. On that motion, supervisor stephanie. Aye. Supervisor mar. Aye. Chair ronen. Aye. The motion passes and in matter will be recommended as the Committee Reports to april 14th board meeting. Thank you so much, mr. Clerk. Is there any other items . That completes the agenda for today. Fantastic. Fastest meeting of all time. The meeting is adjourned. Have a good day everyone. Department of Public Health, dr. Grant colfax, the director of the department of homelessness and housing, abigail khan, the police chief, bill scott. The director of department of emergency management, mary ellen carroll. The director of the department of Human Services, trent ror and were here to provide an update on covid19, where we are as it relates to the Public Health challenges and other resources that could be made available to the people of San Francisco. First, i want to start by really thanking everyone for complying this weekend. I know especially with our religious community it was good friday, Easter Sunday, passover, the very, very holy celebration that takes place, involving bringing congregations and families together. I want to thank you so much for what you did to post your services online, to reach out to your congregations and comply with the stayathome order, it was noticeable and made a real difference. Thank you very much for your continuous leadership. We know there are still people who need help, they need support, they need guidance, they need prayers and we hope that the work you continue to do will reach out to those communities that especially need it the most. We are now at 957 cases to report. We have 93 people that are hospitalized. And, unfortunately, 15 people have lost their lives due to covid19. My heart goes out to the family members of those folks who we have sadly lost because of this. The whole point of why we have implemented a stayathome order has everything to do with preventing as many loss of life as possible. And as a reminder, if youre interested in seeing any of the data were able to provide, you can go to data s. F. , where we have a tracker that is updated every day. We also know that as this pandemic continues, people are struggling. They are struggling to get the resources that they need and, more importantly, many people who typically depend on various locations to access food are not getting access to that food, whether its people who are picking up food from a food pantry, the seniors that we feed at locations all over San Francisco, the kids that rely on the food that is served every single day at our schools, unfortunately, because of this pandemic, access to food has been challenging. Not to mention the people who have lost their jobs and dont qualify for the kinds of services that other families qualify for. So we know Food Security has been a real challenge, not just in the city, but all over the country. I want to just express to the School District appreciation for the work they have done to get locations identified all over San Francisco so that families have access to meals and families are still picking up those meals from schools and recognizing that so many of the kids in our School System may not get access to food. We also know that one of the other challenges we face, although cal fresh is available to a significant portion of our lowincome residents, its not necessarily always easily available to people who may be just a little bit above the qualifications and also folks in our immigrant communities. There have been some changes to provide Additional Support in cal fresh, but in recognizing that there are people who will not qualify, again, including some of our lowincome families and some of our families who are part of our immigrant population, we started a program called give to sf where we have been seeking to get private dollars to help in these efforts and weve also been able to identify resources through the city to provide funding so that we can support those families that may not traditionally qualify for the state benefits that are provided. We also, as a result, because we know there are a lot of different things. There are senior programs, there are delivery programs, there are neighbors helping neighbors. The food bank, and the work that they have done to set up pantries in fact, i visited a pantry in the Bayview Hunter point, where so many were practicing social distancing along with the people picking up the food. They were available, but there again, there are people who are not always able to pick up food, so we have to think about how do we connect all of these resources to the people that we know may not get access to those resources . And so we realize there was a real important need to centralize how food is available to residents of San Francisco. And so we put together a system. You can find it on our website at sf. Org. There is a tracker where it can help you to identify where you can get access to food, whether its food that you may need to be delivered or you can pick up. The fact is, we also realize not everyone has access to the internet. And if you have any questions and you need access to food, please call 311. And the people who are working at the call centers will be able to direct you to the appropriate resource based on what your need is. I mean when you think about it, there are kids who are in our School System that need food and parents or grandparents may be part of the vulnerable population and so they may not necessarily have the ability to pick up that food. And make arrangements to have food delivered to those vulnerable populations. Those people who we are asking to remain in their homes under all circumstances, the need to provide deliveries and pickups and resources in general to our vulnerable population so that everyone is served is so critical to getting us through this process. So, again, we have a tracker at sf. Org and the goal of the tracker is to provide the resources that people may need to access food. This includes all residents of San Francisco. If you think, for whatever reason, you need help or you need support or you need food in any capacity, please call or check the website online. I also want to i want to thank the off the grid, which has partnered with us in this effort, to help with those deliveries, because, again, we have people who may be in our hotels, who are in quarantine, those asking to stay at home in quarantine, but not everyone has the means in order to access food and we want to make sure that is not a barrier to someones ability to be able to survive through this pandemic. Especially when so many people rely on places where folks go every day to get a meal because they may not have the facility in their home, or they may not have the ability to cook themselves because of a physical condition. So just being mindful that there are a lot of folks out there with these challenges and we want to be of service. So any questions, again, call 311, because there are a lot of great resources out there and we want to make sure we get folks connected to them. I also want to talk about the challenges that we continue to face with our Homeless Population. I really want to start by thanking Abigail Stuart khan for all of the work that this department, along with the hot team, the Homeless Outreach team and the folks working in shelters, the people on the front line, working with this population of folks in order to help keep them safe. But i will say that it continues to be a challenge. And although we have access to a number of hotel rooms and we have moved hundreds of people out of the shelter system, including every person who was msc cell out of the shelter system, there continue to be challenges. The bigger issue here is we have to make sure that we have aroundtheclock staffing because this is like nothing weve ever experienced before. So we are not always able to get access to staffing as quickly as we can. Yes, every city and county of San Francisco employee is technically a Disaster Service worker, but what is also happening is when we reach out to them, there are some challenges that some of them may be face. They may be part of the vulnerable population themselves. They may have kids at home that need to be cared for. Or in some instances, they may be fearful. They may be concerned about their own health if they decide to show up to work every single day in an environment where they think possibly they could be exposed. So any other time like an earthquake or other situations where something is transmitted like what were seeing with covid19, it would be a lot easier to staff the hotel rooms, to get people moved in, to have the 24hour support, meal delivery, cleaning service, social service and all the things that we need in order to manage the hotel rooms that we are providing for our Homeless Population, but it has not been easy. It has not been easy to provide adequate staff. Its been very challenging to get even some of the residents who are part of our shelter system in our hotels to comply with the orders to even wear masks. So its not as simple as what people would like to think. If i could open up every hotel room in this city and allow every Single Person to have a place to stay, knowing that will make a difference and keep everyone safe, its not even a question whether or not we would do it. But the reality is the problems that existed in this city with people who struggle with Substance Use disorder and who struggle with Mental Illness have not gone away because of this pandemic. In fact, its been so much harder to really care for this population, especially when they wont comply with simple directions or orders that were implementing. And we have no means in some cases to force them to comply, because Public Health is in jeopardy. So i just ask for understanding. I ask for patience. We know that sadly, sometimes leaders in our city put out information that is not entirely accurate. Its not as simple as we can do one thing versus another, because ultimately, when you think about what were trying to accomplish in San Francisco, we have the bus service, its still running, but we also have a number of bus drivers that have tested positive for covid19. And, therefore, the people who are showing up to drive muni, theyre fearful. And they want to know that were protecting them. We think about the Police Officers and the firefighters and the other folks who are trying to keep us safe. When firefighters answer a call, when our paramedics answer a call where someone has been physically injured, theyre putting their lives on the line to help care for that person. And so there is a lot that goes into making sure that our workforce is protected. That when they call in sick, we have a substitute for them to take their place. That were able to ensure that they will be safe. That they have the appropriate training, because we have people who work for the city, for example, either in the department of elections or another department now they, as Disaster Service workers, are the ones working at these hotels with the population that theyre not completely familiar with. Doing jobs they never have done before which requires training. And now, with social distancing, and now with this epidemic and what it is doing and the fear sometimes because of people and their health, its so important that we train people, that we make sure they have the p. P. E. That they need, which is whole other conversation, but ultimately, we in the city, all the departments, all the people who are continuing to show up for work every single day and put their lives on the line, we are doing everything we can to implement the right policies that will keep people safe. We see what happened at m. S. C. South with 70 people who were infected with the virus. And the sad reality is, you know, we have said from the very, very beginning, it is going to be very challenging to manage the congregate setting, places where there are singleroom occupancy hotels, where we have shelters systems, laguna hondaa rks thaeeyre but this is this is going to be challenging and we want to be realistic with the public. Not just about the systems we put in place, but also about the behavior of the population were trying to serve. It is not as simple as people would like to express that it is, but it doesnt mean that we arent trying every single day, that we dont have the tools and resources to try and make sure were complying with the order ourselves, and doing everything we can to protect Public Health and Public Safety. That is our number one goal. And every decision we make is toward that goal. So i want to talk a little bit about a couple of other items and a few other departments will be up shortly to go into more detail on some of the things that ive highlighted, including some of the challenges we continue to face, but also some of the things that weve put into place, including, again, we have hotel rooms for the Homeless Population, but we also have hotel rooms available to our workforce, the Health Care Professionals that are out there that may not want to go home because of their concern about their loved ones, Public Safety officials, including our muni drivers and other folks. So we are setting up a system for the most part that has been effectively serving people and we will continue to move in that direction. And as i said earlier, i was really grateful to folks who complied with the order. In fact, in just really Walking Around the city and examining some of the things myself, i really got to say that seeing people comply and also seeing folks out and about and social distancing and being responsible and Walking Around folks just so theyre not getting close, people are really getting the message. We do still have challenging areas, but for the most part, thank you to San Francisco for what youve done to help us get to a place that continues to be a model for the rest of the country. But i know that even though Easter Sunday was a challenge, we have another unsanctioned holiday coming up. 420. As many folks in the former district that i represented, district 5 and haight, this has been really a challenge for us for so many years. And last year or maybe even the year before last, we finally got it to a place where it was a lot more manageable. The fencing and the other things that we put into play has made it, i guess, tolerable for the community. But i want to be clear with people who come to San Francisco on 420 to Robin Williams meadow to celebrate 420, do not come to San Francisco on 420 to Robin Williams meadows. We will not allow this unsanctioned event to occur this year. Especially in the height of a pandemic. The area will be fenced off. There will be Police Officers patrolling the area. We will cite and if necessary arrest. We will not tolerate anyone coming to San Francisco for 420 this year. We have absorbed the cost and we have worked with the community to provide to allow this unsanctioned event to continue to occur despite a lot of the rules and regulations that are, you know, challenging to abide by when, for example, no smoking in a park, but it is what it is. And we have been very welcoming to people who have come here, but this year, we will be very, very strict with our policies. We will not allow it. So we want to just take this moment to put this message out there that we will be prepared if people start to show up to make sure that it doesnt happen. The area will be completely fenced off. There will be road blocks and other things that will make it difficult to get in the area. And so i just want to say, for your own health and safety, please do not come. Please do not try and identify another location. It is not safe for us to gather in large groups of people, especially during a pandemic, because the consequences could be deadly. Maybe not for you directly, but maybe for your mother, your grandmother, or any other relative. So just keep that in mind if youre having any thoughts about potentially pushing for a gathering or celebration. Not just in San Francisco, but anywhere else throughout the bay area. So i want to take this opportunity to really thank the police chief and to thank our City Attorney for working with us to pull this together. And we will continue all week to promote and make it clear that this, along with any other large gathering in San Francisco, is not possible at this time. And so please continue to comply with our order. All right. With that, you know, i know it feels like its been a long haul for each and every one of us, but, again, i cant thank the people of San Francisco enough, especially those who continue to comply with the order as difficult as it is. Because i know its difficult. I know its especially difficult for kids to not be able to hang out or see their friends. And yesterday when i was on the phone with a friend of mine, they talked about how they finally got their internet set up and they were able to get access to zoom, so they can go online and their friend they can basically talk to one another. I just you know, it really changed that kids attitude who happens to be a teenager and was being a bit difficult and challenging already, but i just think that if there are really small ways in which we can support young people knowing this is difficult for them, knowing that especially if youre a senior in high school, its almost like a rite of passage with the prom, graduation, and everything else, getting ready to go to college. Just be mindful of the challenges that our young people are facing and try to do more to be as supportive as we possibly can. And with that, i just want to say this has been hard and we know that there are still a number of weeks that we will be experiencing this. And as time goes on, its definitely going to be harder and harder to keep your spirits up, to not get frustrated, to want to do something different. And i just want to remind everyone how critical this is. It is life or death. We are doing okay, but, again, as you can see, especially with our shelters, the numbers can increase significantly and they can spread and this can be problematic overnight. People are talking about San Francisco because we shut down early, but ultimately, that can all change if this thing gets completely out of control. And what you have done to make it possible to get us to this place has been really absolutely incredible. We applaud your efforts. We applaud your kindness and many of you who are out there doing things to support and uplift one another, we appreciate those folks who are taking the opportunity, just coming outside and clapping and supporting the Health Care Workers at a certain time, social distancing. The extra things that you do while following the order to be kind and nice to one another is really what is going to get us through all of this. Remember, were all in this together. We all have to comply. It doesnt matter how much money you have, or how much money you dont have. Doesnt matter if youre celebrity or not. The fact is we all are experiencing this. We all are in the same boat. And so its important that we remember that with our actions and how we treat one another as we deal with something im sure many of us have never seen in our lifetime. But as i continue to say, im hopeful that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Im hopeful that we will get through this and we will look back on our time and just realize how incredible and how resilient this city truly is. So thank you, all, so much. And at this time id like to ask dr. Grant colfax to come up and provide an update from the department of Public Health. Thank you, mayor breed. Good afternoon. Im grant colfax, director of health for the city and county of San Francisco. Its been about a month since we all began staying at home across the bay area to slow down the spread of the coronavirus. Now that weve been at it for a while, i want to start today with reflection. This past weekend was particularly difficult for many of us and challenging for the people of our city. Easter and passover celebrations could not take place in normal ways. Frontline workers and First Responders continued to care for people and address the concerns of an anxious community. More than 100 people experiencing homelessness were moved into hotels which was a major undertaking for them and for the staff who supported them in this transition. Children remained out of school and family schedules continue to be disrupted in both large and small ways. We are truly in unique circumstances that we have never seen in our lifetimes. I acknowledge the stress and discomfort that we see as a community and are feeling across our families and our neighborhoods. We are social beings and it is difficult to be isolated. And it is hard for all of us to deal with uncertainty. But i assure you that the steps that you, we, all of us, are taking are literally saving lives. Together, we are reducing the spread of the coronavirus in the community, in San Francisco, in the bay area. I know that it is not easy and i am grateful for every san franciscan for doing everything they can for the health and safety of our families and our community. When you stay home, when you wash your hands, when you resist unnecessary activity, and when you wear a facial covering, you are literally saving lives. As i have said from the start, we are most concerned about vulnerable populations at high risk for dying from coronavirus. This includes people in longterm care facilities. People who are 60 and over or have Underlying Health conditions. Congregate living situations are also at risk because of how easily it is for the virus to spread under these circumstances. We have been preparing for this. And we have seen it at laguna honda and msb south shelter and well see it in other places as well. Outbreaks like these were bound to happen. This is how coronavirus spreads. Our goal is to slow the spread down and to mitigate the bad outcomes that we see with this virus. As we reported last week, there was an outbreak of coronavirus at m. S. C. South, the citys largest homeless shelter. A total of 182 people there have been tested with 91 positive test results and 91 negative test results. The testing included 57 staff with 10 testing positive and 47 testing negative. This is unfortunate, but again, this is what this is the scenario that we have been preparing for. We have done and we will continue to do everything we can do to respond and protect health. This includes aggressive contact investigation, screening and testing people who are symptomatic, exposed or otherwise at high risk for coronavirus. Cleaning and heightened infectioncontrol practices across the city. Assistants from state and federal advisors and from San Franciscos top Infectious Disease and Public Health experts. Working together with city partners, we have developed a portfolio of options so that we can respond quickly and with flexibility as the situation changes and challenges us. For example, over the weekend the department of homelessness and Supportive Housing and the department of Public Health worked together to move all guests at m. S. C. South into hotels. Isolation, guarantee, or shelter in place sites, depending on guests needs. This was a monumental effort, moving about 100 people and im grateful for all the staff across the city and our partners who accomplished it and all the shelter guests who participated. The next step will be to clean the shelter and prepare it to serve as a Recovery Center for people experiencing homelessness who have coronavirus. A Recovery Center is designated to be a supportive environment staffed by Health Workers and other support workers for covidpositive patients who do not need hospital care, but for whom a hotel is not appropriate due to their health or other condition. I anticipate the possible need for more Recovery Centers as part of a portfolio of alternatives that include field care clinics and isolation and quarantine sites like the hotels. Were drawing on expertise of our Health Care Professionals who serve highneed patients in medical respite and permanent Supportive Housing and on covid19 recovery models developed in other locales. At the same time as we make these significant steps toward health and safety, i want to be clear. The population of people experiencing homelessness face many barriers to health and wellness in normal times and this pandemic will only exploit and amplify those problems. Other cities such as boston, los angeles and seattle are grappling with large numbers of cases of covid19 in Homeless Populations. And we expect to see the same. Unfortunately, not every person experiencing homelessness just like not every person in our Broader Community will be able or willing to follow the instructions that save lives. We know there are Behavioral Health issues, in particular, that can make it difficult to abide by the rules. I think of patients that ive cared for in shelter and Navigation Centers across the city. I think of joe not his real name a man in his 60s. A heavy drinker, an opiate user, who needs eight beers a day to keep from going into withdrawal. I think of all the work we are doing at the department of Public Health with our partners to keep people like joe safe. And yet i know due to multiple factors people like joe are not only particularly vulnerable to covid19, but maybe unable to fully adhere to physical distancing and Hotel Protocols implemented to keep people as safe as possible. Again, adhering to medical advice for joe was hard during normal times. Sometimes he would show up for his appointment, sometimes he wouldnt. Sometimes hed come in being able to respond appropriately, other times he came in drunk. These are not normal times. These are even harder times for joe. And it will be even harder to get him to provide to provide him with the care he needs to keep himself safe. While we are using Harm Reduction approaches and we have the best people on the front lines in our street medicine team, incredible people, like dr. Barry zevin, kate shouten. Incredible people like deb borne, who has done so much, for not only this epidemic but taking the learns from the h. I. V. Epidemic and applying it today to our response. People like liz enbert from ucsf who was up all night friday night at m. F. C. South helping people find a safe place. Overdose prevention and counseling for Substance Use and Mental Health disorders, we know that even during normal times people will still refuse care or cant adhere to all of our care recommendations. These times are different. They are even harder to manage for people suffering from these disorders. Some Vulnerable People will continue to take risk and, unfortunately, these people will be more likely to get sick, require hospitalization and are more likely to die. Were doing all we can to mitigate the delay to mitigate and delay what is likely to be a surge of serious covid19 cases in this population. In addition to hoteling the most vulnerable and sick from shelters and Navigation Centers, our Public Health priorities include moving as many people as we can quickly and efficiently who are elderly or with chronic conditions to hotel rooms or other sites to monitor their symptoms to keep them free from covid19 whenever possible. Our medical, Behavioral Health and Harm Reduction teams are offering supplies and support in the field. Outreach teams continue to go where people are, to provide information, resources and support. We are there every day. We are working lock step with our partners at h. S. A. And h. S. H. To ensure our efforts are optimized and were addressing the needs of as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. Now i would like to update san franciscan s on the data. Todays data shows there are 957 San Francisco residents with confirmed cases of coronavirus. And, unfortunately, i expect to see our numbers in San Francisco climb to above 1,000 soon. Todays numbers are significantly higher than friday. And this is in large part due to the large numbers of testing we have done in the Homeless Community and the positive cases we have found. We are up to nearly 8,000 tests across the city. Sadly, 15 san franciscans to date have died from covid19related illness. And, again, i send my condolences to their families, loved ones and friends. There are currently 93 patients with coronavirus hospitalized across the city and about 30 of them are in the intensive care unit. Our hospitalization numbers have been holding relatively steady fort past few days which is welcome news and a success. But this success could change rapidly at any time, especially as we see expected outbreaks in vulnerable populations. In order to give a fuller picture of the impact on hospitals, we have added some new elements to our data tracker. Starting today we have included new data about hospitalizations and hospital capacity. On the tracker, you can now see hospitalized patients who may have covid19 and are awaiting test results. This allows us to have a more complete picture of the potential spread of the virus and the amounts of people impacted and how our Hospital Systems are being impacted on a daily basis. On saturday, in addition to the 93 patients with confirmed coronavirus in hospitals, there were also 44 hospital patients who were awaiting test results. These numbers will be updated on a regular basis on the data tracker. Were also sharing new data that helps us better understand the availability of San Francisco hospital beds for patients with covid19. We regularly monitor this information as it indicates our systems ability to care for a suspected surge. On saturday, we had a total of 1229 acute care beds and 441 i. C. U. Beds available to meet the demands of the surge. So as you can tell, at this time, our San Francisco Hospital Systems have enough beds to care for all current coronavirus patients and people who may have coronavirus as well as patients who are hospitalized for other reasons. We will continue to make progress expanding hospital bed capacity for an expected surge. Now i would like to provide a brief update on the outbreak at laguna hospital and the steps we are taking to protect the health of residents and staff. We continue to have 17 confirmed cases of coronavirus. That number has remained the same since april 7, which was the last time we had a new case confirmed. 13 of the confirmed cases are among staff and 4 are among residents. Of the staff, 10 have been in patient care positions and three have not. All four positive resident cases are in the south 5 neighborhood. Overall, to date, 303 laguna honda hospital staff have been tested either by d. P. H. Or their own provider. As part of the ongoing outbreak response we continue to assess staff and patients throughout the hospital that have been identified as being exposed from contact investigation or have other risk factors like showing symptoms of the virus. While i do expect more positive cases, we continue to take actions informed by facts and evidence to protect health and mitigate the further spread of the viruses at the facility, both among staff and among residents. I am thankful that laguna honda continues to receive support from cdc, centers for Disease Control experts, who remain on site and continue to help advise and guide our efforts. These recommendations are also informing efforts to be applied to protect staff and residents at other nursing home facilities across the city. As we continue to fight the coronavirus pandemic together, i would like to remind you that our priorities continue to be reducing the spread of the virus in the community, protecting vulnerable populations, Health Care Workers and First Responders, preparing our system for an expected surge in hospital patients, and expanding testing capability. In all of this work, we must continue to follow science, data and fact. We seek to continually do better as we incorporate this information into our actions and recommendations. We are working quickly to integrate new information all the time and adjust our recommendations accordingly, so that we are providing the very best most uptodate advice to you, the public, that we can. Thank you. Next up is director stuart khan, the director of homelessness and Supportive Housing to provide an update. Thank you, dr. Colfax, and mayor breed for your leadership during this crisis. The city and our nonprofit partners are battling two simultaneous Public Health emergencies, homelessness and all of its complexity and the compounding issue of the covid pandemic. We know that everyones health is intertwined and when people do not have homes to reside in, it is more challenging for them to take care of themselves. And for some, as the mayor noted and dr. Colfax talked about joe, their lives are complex and that makes it harder, even harder for them to accept help. As a clinical social worker we all know people like joe. And myself and all of my colleagues have dedicated our lives to their care and empowerment. We know they need to say yes before help can come. Today i wanted to provide an update on m. S. C. South which dr. Colfax already touched on. Division circle and hamilton shelter, our progress is thinning and information on the hotels which director will share more information on after me. As dr. Colfax noted, we, through a heroic effort of the department of Public Health and our own organization, have moved everybody out of m. S. C. South. It is in the process of being cleaned and repurposed for future need. This was a massive, massive task. Scott walton from our department and st. Vincent de paul, our partner, worked through the night with the department of Public Health and all of our colleagues working at hotels to receive individuals from m. S. C. South. We have two other positives which weve already provided updates on at press conferences, but i want to provide a continuing update here. As you know, Division Circle was our first site that had a positive covid test that is a navigation center. That remains with one positive test. Vulnerable individuals have been moved offsite and were already in the process when that positive test occurred. All steps toward shelterthinning and distancing, allowing for physical distancing, even within a congregate setting, have been completed in that site. Hamilton shelter that has families in one room had one positive test. That family was already offsite and vulnerable individuals are moving off site. Hamilton family is a longtime provider of family care in our city. Theyve gone above and beyond just like st. Vincent de paul to implement guidance from our department and the department of Public Health long before these positive cases occurred. And theyve gone even further since positives have been reported. At a system level, we have been working tirelessly to create what is called shelterthinning or shelter equilibrium. Shelter thinning, shelters are dense places, places that we know people should not reside for long periods of time, but they do. Equilibrium to me means that the vulnerable individuals have been moved out as part of thinning so we know they can be taken care of in hotel rooms. As of yesterday, approximately 750 people experiencing homelessness are in isolation, quarantine and shelter in place Hotels Across our city. This is a massive, massive task and accomplishment. As the mayor noted, we cannot simply open the doors of hotel rooms and invite people in. Where that is happening, we have care. We have to we have to care for every single step in the process. Ill talk about that next. In order to accomplish full shelter equilibrium with the vulnerable populations moving out, we estimate we have somewhere between 100 and 200 more who are in motion today. This will allow us to know that the vulnerable individuals who have accepted our offer of a hotel room have moved from those rooms. Not all are accepting. It is scary to move into an isolation, quarantine or shelter in place room for some individuals with complex lives. For joe, it is a near impossibility. Without significant care and help. Those are all the things that our system of care is standing up now. We will keep working. We will keep working to support people like joe and the clients we all dedicated our lives to serving. Director ror will provide an update on the big picture where we are in hotel rooms, but i wanted to provide additional context on what it takes to open a single hotel and move vulnerable, or nonvulnerable individuals in. Securing leases is only the first step and is managed by h. S. A. At great speed. There are several additional factors that must come together, including staffing. We have to conduct wellness checks multiple times a day. We have to enforce social distancing and shelter in place tt orders without significant Legal Recourse because we dont want to cite people at these locations. We must deliver three meals a day. We must manage crisis. Our staff and partners manage crisis every day in all of our places and they manage it beautifully without incident. When people are picked up and moved away from their environments, we expect that crisis will only become exacerbated. We have to plan for that with our staffing, yet the staff were asking to do this, many of whom have never done this before. We want to thank the Disaster Service workers, the nonprofit partners, h. S. A. Staff, and all of the partners, sheriffs, police, everyone turning up at these hotels around the clock to make it possible. We have to conduct screening for ability to selfcare. And when someone is not able to selfcare, we have to put additional staffing in place beyond wellness checks and feeding. We need to work on transportation and we want to thank our colleagues at ems, private ambulances and mta who are making this possible. If you think about physical distancing in a bus, you can imagine how many buses it takes to move 750 people over the course of a few days. This is a slow process. We are also working hard on Harm Reduction in each of these locations to ensure people can have their needs met and they can say where they are. Then we focus on discharge planning and reinstatement to shelter. These are some of the steps required and were working tirelessly to open more in the coming days. Director rohr is the director of the Human Services agency and will speak now. Thank you. Good afternoon. Director of Human Services agency. Thank you, mayor breed, thank you dr. Colfax, thank you director khan. What i want to do today is update everyone on the status of our hotel, securing hotels and activation and deployment and give you data on the numbers we have both secured, under contract as well as individuals in the rooms. I know im going to repeat myself from the last press conferences, but there might be individuals from the press who are new. I wanted to start with an overview. One important part of the Human Services agency role in citywide disaster planning includes mass care shelter for our most vulnerable residents. We continue to follow the latest guidance from local and national Public Health experts to minimize exposure to those who dont have adequate housing. And to ensure there are enough hospital beds available in San Francisco to treat patients with covid19. To this end, we started on march 9 when we activated our operation center. We began securing housing for persons who have tested positive for covid19, or who are considered a person under investigation meaning theyve been tested and theyre unable to safely selfquarantine or isolate due to their homeless status or living situation, such as being in a singleroom occupancy hotel. In addition, were securing housing for sheltered people who are experiencing homelessness, either to reduce the capacity in shelters but more importantly, moving the vulnerable from a congregated environment to hotels. Lastly, our frontline city workers who are vital, of course, to our ability to handle the pandemic. And were securing rooms to limit their exposure to the covid19 virus as well as to prevent them from exposing their family members. Our current plan is based upon the most recent guidance from federal and state authorities and city partners, both with Public Health and the department of homelessness and Supportive Housing. And our goal based on the populations noted above is to secure over 7,000 hotel rooms. Thanks to the leadership of mayor breed and ive mentioned this before we recognized early on the need for rooms. We met with the hotel council. We released requests to get bids from hotels, received an overwhelming response, dozens and dozens of hotels, totalling over 11,000 rooms. As of today, we have secured 2082 rooms. These are currently under contract and theyre at 13 Different Hotel locations. We will continue to negotiate leases, identify sites and assess them and bring Hotel Rooms Online on a rolling basis to continue to meet the needs of the population i noted earlier. Our number one priority is to ensure that Hotel Operations are equipped to handle individuals that provide the resources and services they need to shelter safely in place. This is not a small undertaking. We need to provide people with everything they need to stay put, to stay safe and we need to face these challenges head on. Every Hotel Facility requires a unique plan and individual negotiation with Hotel Management to provide the necessary security, support staffing, Hotel Operation staffing, clinicians and case managers, cleaning and cleaning supplies, and meals. Also at each hotel we need to set up secure it infrastructure because were transmitting confidential medical information about patients. I want to thank the tremendous efforts of our citys Disaster Service workers for their actions, their coordination and their stepping up out of their traditional roles to help us but make no mistake, this is massive deployment of personnel. We anticipate needing as many as 600 hotel site monitors from city staff working 247, three different shifts, from again city staff as well as our communitybased provider agencies. And this is in addition to the people we need to bring on board to help make sure people that we place in these hotels are safe and have their needs met. This includes case managers, clinicians, Harm Reduction experts, all on hand with vital Safety Measures such as overdose protections. The system that we have in place now and that will continue to grow is working. Hotels weve secured by the city to ensure that people exposed to covid19 who do not need to be hospitalized have safe places for medical respite and were saving our critical hospital beds, as dr. Colfax noted, saving our critical hospital beds for those most in need. When people are experiencing homelessness and need a safe place to go after recovering or being exposed, our hotels are meeting their needs. When vulnerable adults need to move from shelter or congregate settings in hotels, were meeting their needs. The most recent example when we faced on outbreak at our largest city shelter, we had hotel rooms available to place them and isolate them as quickly as we could. No one is being discharged from the hospitals to create space for others. People are being transported from the hospitals to safe spaces, not to the streets. Now for a recap on the data. I mentioned earlier we have under contract 2082 hotel rooms across 13 hotels. Two sites are for First Responders totalling 880 rooms. The rest of the rooms, 1202, are for the vulnerable populations i noted above. The vast majority of them being Homeless Individuals from homeless shelters or discharged from hospitals. Of those 1202 rooms we have under contract, 751 of them are currently filled. 447 of that number are directly from our shelter system. Ill be on hand to answer questions after this. At this point ill turn it over to chief scott, San Francisco police chief. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. First i want to thank again our mayor, mayor breed, for her outstanding leadership during this pandemic. As we work to all flatten the curve and stop the spread of covid19, its important that we hold each other accountable. From the beginning of this pandemic, ive talked about our first and foremost job was to educate the public rather than go straight to enforcement. I think weve done and continue do a good job of that. Ive also made it clear we will not hesitate to move against those who knowingly flaunt the Public Health order in order to hold these people accountable. It should be abundantly clear to everyone by now this is matter of life and death. And were seeing, for the majority of people, really good compliance in our city. Unfortunately, there are a few people who continue to act in a careless disregard for the health and safety of both themselves and others. So it is in this context that over the weekend in collaboration with the San Francisco City Attorneys office we were able to shut down an illegally operating underground nightclub on shafter avenue in the bayview district. We were able to make this actually to shut this illegal club down following investigation initiated by the City Attorneys office. And after the City Attorneys office secured a warrant that allowed us to shut down the business. Just to give a little detail. On friday night we were alerted that this club was intending to open friday night. And what we have learned is that it has been opening in the wee hours of the morning in the weeks after the social distancing and stayathome order was put in place. We posted officers at this location on friday. And lo and behold, wouldbe party goers started to show up. They were turned around at the door and this business was not able to operate on friday night. We effectively shut it down on friday night. On saturday, our officers from our bayview station and our Tactical Unit officers armed with civil search warrant executed that warrant and seized the following materials from this location. D. J. Equipment, fog machines, nine gambling machines with approximately 670 in cash inside of those gambling machines, two pool tables, cases of liquor and other items that indicated evidence of an illegal nightclub. There were individuals detained and those individuals are still under investigation. In terms of us getting to the bottom of who is actually operating the club. As a reminder, under the Public Health order issued in march, march 16, bars and night clubs are not allowed to operate in the city and county of San Francisco. Nor are they allowed to operate in the state of california. This illegal club has been operating out of an industrial business and were told that it lacked proper sprinklers, fire alarms and exits for a building that is open to the public for the purposes of nightclub. None of these things existed. Evidence gathered during the investigation has shown previous incidents of dozens of people entering and exiting the building during the Early Morning hours with loud music being played and security guards posted out front, frisks people as they entered the illegal nightclub. Were also investigating an incident in which shots were fired in the vicinity of the location a few weeks ago. And we are determining or attempting to determine whether that activity is connected to this club. This activity indicates a willful and reckless disregard of the health order. And for those who are operating this illegal club, they need to be held accountable. All the people that have ended this club entered this club prior it to it shutting down have put us and others that theyve come into contact with at risk. That is unacceptable. The investigation into this activity is ongoing and may result in possible civil sanctions and or criminal sanctions and that is yet to be determined. But just to recap where we are so far. Illegal and dangerous operation has been shut down. All the property inside has been seized. The landlord has moved to evict the tenant according to our City Attorneys office. And we hope that this is a lesson to anybody that plans to do this type of activity while were trying to save peoples lives by social distancing and shutting these type of businesses down. Again, we believe that the majority of people in our city are compliant with the health order and were seeing that with our own eyes, however, there are a few who must be held accountable for their disregard to the health and safety of themselves and others. Now id like talk about this past weekend. It was said by our mayor, this weekend we had challenges with people out, really just trying to enjoy the Easter Holiday and the weather. And for the most part, we saw more people in our parks, saw more people out trying to get exercise and fresh air. We anticipated this and the San Francisco Police Department along with our rec and parks and our park rangers were deployed at several parks around the city where we thought wed see an increase in activity. Our cadets were teamed up with officers and worked in conjunction with our park rangers and we were able to spread the message and education. There were 67 warnings given on sunday, just sunday alone, in our parks. Id like to say, by and large, after warnings were given, people complied. Thats what were after. Were after compliance and after, in the bigger context, of people separating and staying six feet apart. How we get there is really not important. Whats more important is that we get compliance. We know how difficult this pandemic is on the public and we know how difficult it is on all of us, but we ask for the public to stay the course. We need your compliance. And the bestcase scenario is if that compliance is voluntary. In terms of enforcement, there are two additional citations since our last press conference that id like to inform you about. They were both businesses. One was a salon that was cited. Its a nonessential business that was operating and we closed it down and we cited the management owners. The other was a liquor store that was opened after the hours of 8 00 p. M. And this store had been warned already. As i have said over and over again, were not going to warn you more than once. Particularly if youre a business doing operations. Thats a bigger risk and bigger exposure and its much different than people just going out trying to get air and get out of the house. So were not going to warn you twice. This business had been warned. We had to go back. They were cited. As far as crime, this past this week over the week prior, Violent Crime was flat. There was a 0 change in Violent Crime. Our property crime, there was 29 decrease over the past week which equates to 130 fewer crimes. Overall, there was 25 decrease in overall serious crime. We know that all crimes are not reported. We encourage the public to report crimes as they occur, particularly Violent Crimes. We talked about our 911 for those particularly those people suffering Domestic Violence and cant get to the phone to make a call, you can text 911 as well. We encourage you to do so. As stated, if you need to report a crime and its a nonviolent or nonemergency situation, please call 415 5530123. And again, you can call 311 to utilize services or the San Francisco Police Department website. And we can take reports that way as well. Again, id like to close by thanking our mayor and the city leadership for getting us through this pandemic. And we ask that you comply. Just one more thing before i close. I want to reemphasize about what mayor breed said about 420. We are working with the city agencies and we will be there in full force to make sure that we dont have gatherings of people on april 20th, who are trying to celebrate 420. We encourage you to zoom or whatever conference teleconference that you use to do this the privacy of our own home. Please do not come to San Francisco and gather to celebrate 420. Do it responsibly if youre going to do it at all. Do it safely and in a manner that is consistent with the Public Health orders of our state and city. Thank you. Chief, if you can stay. Well ask the first questions for you. With the warmer weather, weve been hearing complaints of people not doing enough social distancing. Has s. F. P. D. Noticed increase in citations issued and can you discuss the circumstances . What we noticed this weekend, there were a lot of people out and by and large most people were doing what they have been asked to do. What is difficult with this is and ive been out there almost every day making my own observations when you have two or three people walking down the street and you dont know whether theyre in the same household or not, many officers are engaging and trying to determine that. If you have a large gathering at a park, thats a different story. When we see that, were warning. By and large, when we warn, people comply. As i stated earlier, the spirit and intent of this is to get people to comply so i dont have these issues to begin with. By and large that is happening. For those individuals, particularly the businesses like i just mentioned, we warn. But if we have to come back, were going to cite. We did that over the weekend and will continue to do that. For the wouldbe nightclub, that is unacceptable. Luckily, some person actually alerted the City Attorneys office to that and the investigation proved true and we were able to shut that down. But there are different situations for different occasions, but the bottom line is, were trying to get to compliant. That will be a combination of warnings, cites when reasonable and appropriate, and continuing to engage and educate the public as much as we can. Reporter the next question are for mayor breed. This question is from melanie. Does the moratorium on eviction apply to commercial businesses that are on a monthtomonth lease. Mayor breed yes, it applies to all on a monthtomonth lease. If youre a business and experiencing challenges with your landlord, please reach out to us at oewd. Org or call 311 to be directed to the office of economic and workforce development. Reporter thank you, mayor breed. The next questions are for dr. Grant colfax. Public health. The followup is sorry. Okay. Apologize. The next questions are from dr. Grant colfax. Reporter doctor, this is from abc7, the institute of Health Metrics and evaluation predicts a peak resource use will in april 13 in california. Today . Its april 13th, correct . Correct. As i talked about in my remarks, we are currently able to manage the burden of covid19 patients in our hospital system. I think its very important, though, to realize that we may not be near our peak and as i talked about in the remarks, were particularly concerned about increasing numbers of hospitalizations in our vulnerable populations. So we are continuing to work to prepare for a surge and we are also looking we are also looking at other models that suggest a surge could happen much later. Reporter next question is from fax news. Dr. Golly says by this summer, 30 of the population there will be infected. At what point does delaying the peak get without weighed by the outweighed by the economic devastation were seeing, especially with hospitals with unused beds . Our focus is on Public Health and ensuring we slow the spread of the coronavirus, particularly so it delays the spread into the vulnerable population who are most likely to have bad outcomes and die from the virus. Its been just over a month since weve been engaging in the shelter in place orders. Those will go through may 3rd at this time. Well continue to follow the data, science and facts. I think if you look at the experience in other countries. You look at the evidence. These sorts of orders, if theyre lifted too early, you rebound and start back you can rebound and things can get very bad very quickly. So right now with regard to shelter in place orders, we need to stay the course. Reporter followup question. Do you see shelter orders being relaxed or opened up fort relatively young and healthy who seem to be coping well with the virus . As i stated in a prior answer, we need to stay our course at this time. The data that we have show that our curve on the number of hospitalizations is thankfully relative flat. That number will likely increase in the coming weeks and possibly months. We need to stay our course. Reporter next question, cnn. Please clarify the status of m. S. C. . How many have tested positive . And where are the people now . So as i stated in my remarks, we have tested 182 people in the shelter. 91 people tested positive. M. S. C. South is closed. And the residents, the guests have been moved to hotels where theyre being monitored by a support staff and Health Care Workers. Reporter followup question. When will the Medical Center be open and who will take it who will it take . So, we are in a rapidly evolving situation. And looking to determine as we grow our Surge Capacity what the role for m. S. C. South will be. The current plan is for it to be a medical Recovery Center for People Living with covid19. I dont have a time line to share with you at this time. Reporter next questions are from vivian at the guardian. Why wont the city track and publish data on the Housing Status of positive cases . Im sorry, could you repeat is this why dont the city track and publish data on the Housing Status of positive cases . I very much want to be able to provide those data. Heres the situation, though. Our testing information, when a test is done, does not require people, organizations, companies who are doing the testing to report Housing Status. So when a test result comes in, we do not necessarily know that the test result is from a person who is experiencing homelessness. Generally, we know the age. Sometimes we know the race and ethnicity, although you can seen 0 the data tracker that some of those are missing. We are working hard to get a comprehensive perspective on how many people are experiencing homelessness have tested positive for covid19. We are using our data teams at the Health Department to adapt our h. I. V. Data system tracking which has the number of People Living with homelessness who are h. I. V. Were adapting that to more fully monitor the impact of the covid19 on the Homeless Population. I do i will say that currently within our zuckerberg San Francisco hospital, the safety net hospital for the city, we have which takes care of a large number of people experiences homelessness, of our hospitalized patients, approximately 20 of those hospitalized with covid19 are people who report being homeless. Reporter the followup is, does the city know how many unhoused individuals, not just shelter residents, but all unhoused individuals have tested positive . So as i said, i have the numbers for zuckerberg San Francisco general. We shared the numbers about the numbers testing positive at m. F. C. South and weve had other cases in other shelters and Navigation Centers. And were moving toward a system and i hope to be able to share more comprehensive data sometime soon. Reporter next question. S. F. Chronicle. Does San Francisco track covid19 cases by neighborhood . If so, why hasnt it released the data to the public . So we are working on analyzing the covidpositive data, testing data by neighborhood and we hope to be able to release that information very soon. Reporter okay. Next question is for trisha, s. F. Chronicle. How many s. R. O. S have been inspected and cited in regard to the march 10 health order regarding cleaning . Im sorry. Could you repeat. How many s. R. O. S have been inspected and cited in accordance with the march 10th health order regarding cleaning . So there are 504s. R. O. S throughout the city. And pursuant to the health order weve inspected to date, 494 of those. And there have been 284 violations reported. And those are being corrected and debated as we speak. Next followup. How many of the 32 people in s. R. O. S who have tested positive for covid19 have been quarantined . We work to ensure that people who test positive or people under investigation have adequate resources to quarantine and isolate per Public Health recommendations. If they do not, we support them and their families in transitioning to an alternative, which could potentially be a hotel room or another alternative for that individual so that they are safe in quarantine or isolation. Reporter next question. How many total have been tested and how many more need to be tested in connection with m. S. C. South . So, again, we offer testing to all residents of m. S. C. South. And the 182 people have been tested, including residents and staff. We are conducting contacttracing and depending on the exposure of people through that contacttracing, those people will potentially be tested as well. Reporter what about calls to test all those in shelters . Is that impossible because of lack of testing equipment . So, we are testing based on aggressive contact investigations. And also based on symptoms. And were testing based on those contact investigations, were testing people who have had close contact with someone who is covid19, those showing symptoms and those most at risk. We continue to be faced with a lack of testing supplies. I just want to emphasize that this testing supply issue is not only in San Francisco. Its across the bay area. Its across the state as i think everybody has read in the news. Its across the nation. Due to the lack of a centralized system by which we have clear understanding of what supplies will be available and when, we have a supply system that is, unfortunately, not dependable and we have a shortage of testing supplies at this time. We are working at the Health Department, were working with other incredible city departments, were, working with other partners to ensure we expand our supply. But some of these circumstances are beyond our local, regional and from my understanding state control. The next letter. Nbc. Now that there has been outbreak at m. S. C. South, do you wish you would have moved the homeless sooner or done things differently . From day one, i talked about the need to focus on people in the vulnerable population. The Homeless Population, those must be our focus because those are the people most likely to die from covid19. In collaboration with h. S. A. And h. S. H. , we have moved many, many of these people into hotel rooms where they can be monitored, tested if they have symptoms and well continue aggressive contact investigations in the population experiencing homelessness as well. Reporter followup question. Can you tell us whether the city has accepted u. C. S. F. Offer to test residents in homeless shelters . Theyve been an incredible partner during our response to the pandemic. Weve ive been on daily calls with leaders at u. C. S. F. Ensuring that were responding to the best information that we have. There are world leaders, many of whom i talk to on a regular basis to better understand how we can improve our response at the local level. As part of our response, u. C. S. F. Has been very generous in providing additional p. P. E. And additional testing capacity. I think there is confusion with regard to testing capacity, which is basically offering capacity in the machines that run the test. Unfortunately, that is not the same thing as getting swabs that you need to collect specimens please. And both continue to struggle with the shortage of the swabs. It is true that u. C. S. F. Has generously through the Zuckerberg Institute and other bio hub, excuse me, have been generous in ways to scale up to what it takes to run the test in the machine. Its different than getting the swabs to collect the test. Thats our limit across the city and the region. Reporter this is the last question to dr. Colfax. N. P. R. How many of the positive cases from m. S. C. Have been underlying conditions or older than 60 . I dont have that exact information to share. I can tell you that most of the residents who tested positive are in good condition. But were monitoring them carefully for any symptoms that would require additional care. And then a followup, how many have been hospitalized and what is their condition . As of friday, we had one person in that group that was hospitalized and were getting Additional Information on the status of the remaining people. Thank you, doctor. Next questions are for director abigail stewartkhan, director of homelessness and Supportive Housing. Reporter the first question. Huffington post. How many people in total in the city have been moved to the hotel rooms . As i said in my earlier remarks, as of yesterday it was 750 and we know were moving people actively today. Its important to note that people experiencing homelessness are coming to hotels through many different means. Some are coming from hospitals. Some are coming from shelters. And theyre going into Different Levels of hotel rooms in terms of the needs of their care. Reporter what is the citys current criteria and plan to move homeless into hotels . And by when . Thats a great question. So as dr. Colfax and director rohr have shared, were prioritizing vulnerable individuals because of their risk of mortality. It is not that other people may not contract covid or were not concerned about that, were deeply concerned about it. At this stage in the epidemic, we need to, according to the department of Public Health, work towards preventing mortality among the most vulnerable. So were working towards the most Vulnerable People who are sheltered. We should have completed most of that by the end of the day today for those who are accepting our offer of hoteling. And then we will be moving to the most vulnerable unsheltered in the coming days. Reporter next question. Associated press. How are you making sure that hotels having Vulnerable People remain covidfree . Thats a great question because it is very difficult to do. So i think what we all need to understand, what im learning from colleagues at the department of Public Health, during an epidemic, its not possible to guarantee that any location any of us go to is covidfree this is the impetus behind the shelter in place. Every location you or i go to m may be covid positive. Were taking temperatures. Were screening upon arrival. We cannot guarantee that. Reporter next question. N. P. R. You described the challenges that behavioral and Substance Abuse issues pose putting Homeless People into hotels. Are you actively working toward preventative hotel rooms for nonVulnerable People . Thats a great question and one that has been carefully considered by the leaders in the city. I think what is important to note, while were talking about the behavioral and Substance Use individuals into hotel rooms, people who have these complexities in their lives also often have medical vulnerabilities. So were not prioritizing people with behavioral or Substance Use needs. Its important to slow down on that point. Were prioritizing people based on age of 60 and over, or medical preexisting conditions. The reality is that trauma compounds illness, illness compounds trauma, and all of these things can have an effect on behavioral and Substance Use issues. So the individuals who are coming into our hotels have very complicated lives. Reporter next question. This is the last question. From noah from San Francisco public press. Considering that u. C. S. F. And the study of San Francisco said they lack adequate resources to test all occupants and staff in homeless shelters, who will you approve for tested on why . Thank you, noah. Questions about prioritization for testing are best directed to the department of Public Health, but as you heard from dr. Colfax, the focus is around contact investigation. So when we have a positive case, the department of Public Health speaking for them since dr. Colfax just explained this, they do a deep contact investigation. For example, at Division Circle we had a positive case. That individual was already at a quarantine site. Immediately contact investigation had begun. We learned who that individual talked to, worked with, what case managers they worked with, who they slept near in Division Circle. Those individuals were considered exposed and recommended for testing. So it goes from there. Once you have more positives, it became important to look at a different strategy. How many people have had contact with those who tested positive at m. S. C. South . Thank you for the opportunity to clarify the status at moscone west. It is not being used for shelterthinning. Shelter thinning is being moved into hotel rooms. Moscone west is in the process of being developed for medical stepdown, people who are post covid and still require shelter but are safer to be in a congregate setting due to their medical status. Thank you. Those are your questions. The next questions are for director trent rohr, Human Services agency. Reporter first question, from San Francisco examiner. Of the 15 who died, could you tell us how many were homeless, how many were in Nursing Homes and if so, how many City Employees and how many died in hospitals . That question is most appropriately directed to the director of Public Health. Okay, so why dont we go ahead and go to john sing, San Francisco chronicle. Mayor breed stated it is not easy to ensure staffing. What is done to ensure there are enough case monitors . Similar to the Human Services agency, we have a department of Operations Center here. The Citys Department of Human Resources also has an Operations Center located here. Theyre charged with activating what is called the citys Disaster Service worker deployment. And what happens, they receive from the Human Services agencies operations, the number of staff that we need, including job descriptions and qualifications were looking for and recruit from the Disaster Service worker program, which is basically any city employee. The process is lengthy. Each of them have to be trained. Each of them have to be provided with personal protective equipment, deployed to particular hotels where they have to be retrained by the particular site manager. We have a system of flow in place working with our partners at department of Human Resources so ensure we have the individuals to be the monitors or case workers. In addition with our nonprofit partners, many of whom have employees who actually provide this work, conduct this work in permanent housing sites, were appealing to them as well to provide support. As director khan mentioned before, these agencies are stretched dealing with their own programs and services under this pandemic, but were appealing to them as well. Final question. Does the city still aim for 7,000 hotel rooms or are Hotel Operators having second thoughts . So our goal is not dependent on the hotel owners and what they have to offer. Our goal, numerical goal is informed by the need. The need among the 19,000s. R. O. Residents who may need to be quarantined. The shelter residents who need to be moved out and the general Homeless Population and others who cant selfquarantine. I walked through the populations were targeting earlier and among those populations we feel that 7,000 rooms is what we need to provide the appropriate quarantine and isolation for those individuals. Reporter okay. Thank you. That is our final question. This concludes our press conference. What if you could make a memorial that is more about information and you are never fixed and it can go wherever it wants to go . Everyone who has donated to it could use it, host it, share it. For quite a great deal of team she was hired in 2005, she struggled with finding the correct and appropriate visual expression. It was a bench at one point. It was a darkened room at another point. But the theme always was a theme of how do we call peoples attention to the issue of speci species extinction. Many exhibits do make long detailed explanations about species decline and biology of birds and that is very useful for lots of purposes. But i think it is also important to try to pull at the strings inside people. Missing is not just about specific extinct or endangered species. It is about absence and a more fundamental level of not knowing what we are losing and we need to link species loss to habitat loss and really focuses much on the habitat. Of course the Overall Mission of the academy has to do with two really fundamental and important questions. One of which is the nature of life. How did we get here . The second is the challenge of sustainability. If we are here how are we going to find a way to stay . These questions resonated very strongly with maya. On average a species disappears every 20 minutes. This is the only media work that i have done. I might never do another one because im not a media artist per se but i have used the medium because it seemed to be the one that could allow me to convey the sounds and images here. Memorials to me are different from artworks. They are artistic, but memorials have a function. It is a beautiful scupltural objective made with bronze and lined with red wood from water tanks in clear lake. That is the scupltural form that gives expression to mayas project. If you think about a cone or a bull horn, they are used to get the attention of the crowd, often to communicate an Important Message. This project has a very Important Message and it is about our earth and what we are losing and what we are missing and what we dont even know is gone. So, what is missing is starting with an idea of loss, but in a funny way the shape of this cone is, whether you want to call it like the r. C. A. Victor dog, it is listen to the earth and what if we could create a portal that could look at the past, the present and the future . You can change what is then missing by changing the software, by changing what is projected and missing. So, missing isnt a static installation. It is an installation that is going to grow and change over time. And she has worked to bring all of this information together from laboratory after laboratory including, fortunately, our great fwroup of researche e g researchers at the california academy. This couldnt have been more Site Specific to this place and we think just visually in terms of its scupltural form it really holds its own against the architectural largest and grandeur of the building. It is an unusual compelling object. We think it will draw people out on the terrace, they will see the big cone and say what is that. Then as they approach the cone tell hear these very unusual sounds that were obtained from the cornell orinthology lab. We have the largest recording of birds, mammals, frogs and insects and a huge library of videos. So this is an absolutely perfect opportunity for us to team up with a world renown, very creative inspirational artist and put the sounds and sights of the animals that we study into a brandnew context, a context that really allows people to appreciate an esthetic way of the idea that we might live in the World Without these sounds or sites. In the scientific realm it is shifting baselines. We get used to less and less, diminished expectations of what it was. When i came along lobsters six feet long and oysters 12 inches within they days all the oyster beds in new york, manhattan, the harbor would clean the water. So, just getting people to wake up to what was just literally there 200 years ago, 150 years ago. You see the object and say what is that. You come out and hear these intriguing sounds, sounds like i have never heard in my life. And then you step closer and you almost have a very intimate experience. We could link to different institutions around the globe, maybe one per continent, maybe two or three in this country, then once they are all networked, they begin to communicate with one another and share information. In 2010 the website will launch, but it will be what you would call an informational website and then we are going to try to, by 2011, invite people to add a memory. So in a funny way the member rely grows and there is something organic about how this memorial begins to have legs so to speak. So we dont know quite where it will go but i promise to keep on it 10 years. My goal is to raise awareness and then either protect forests from being cut down or reforest in ways that promote biodiversity. Biodiverse city often argued to be important for the worlds human populations because all of the Medicinal Plants and uses that we can put to it and fiber that it gives us and food that it gives us. While these are vital and important and worth literally hundreds of billions of dollars, the part that we also have to be able to communicate is the more spiritual sense of how important it is that we get to live side by side with all of these forms that have three billion years of history behind them and how tragic it would be not commercially and not in a utilitarian way but an emotio l emotional, psychological, spiritual way if we watch them one by one disappear. This is sort of a merger between art and science and advocacy in a funny way getting people to wake unand realize what is going on wake up and realize what is going on. So it is a memborial trying to get us to interpret history and look to the past. They have always been about lacking at the past so we proceed forward and maybe dont commit the same mistakes. This is thes Transportation Committee for monday, april 13th. Im the chair of the meeting. Our clerk is miss erica major from before miss major gives any announcements, i want to thank all of the staff from the clerk of the board who are bringing this Virtual Meeting to everybody who is participating and watching. Thank you to john c. And author thorougarthurcoo. The board of supervisors legislative chamber and Committee Room are close. However, members will be participating remotely as if they were present. Public comment will be available for each item on the agenda. Channel 26 and sf gov tv are streaming the