Transcripts For SFGTV DPH Press Availability 20240711

Die. Lets do everything we can this winter, this Holiday Season to prevent this scenario. Today the state test San Francisco in the red tier of the reopening blueprint. We remain one tier down from the most restricted tier purple, which triggers roll back of additional activity and abiding by the state and requires abiding by the state limited stayathome order. As this slide shows, we are fast approaching the case count to be reassigned to the purple tier. Tier reassignments may occur more than once a week when the department of Public Health, California Department of Public Health determines immediate action is needed. We expect to be placed in that purple tier sometime soon, perhaps later this week. Now, i want to focus on testing. As we prepared for the ongoing surge. We have taken action to try to slow the spread of the virus. But we need everyone in San Francisco to recommit to protecting themselves, loved ones and our community. Part of that is our collective use of city resources to fight the spread of the virus. We have a robust testing system across the city, and, indeed, San Francisco is leading jurisdictions in the number of tests performed per day. For instance, just last week we hit a day where we did 9,000 covid19 tests across the city. We are averaging 6,000 tests each day. Unfortunately, the number of tests coming back positive in the last four weeks has increased by 265 . That means just last month our positivity case rate was. 81 . Today it is 2. 15 and going up. But testing at cityrun test sites must be reserved for people with covid19 symptoms or exposure or for essential workers and those without insurance. If you have insurance and need a covid19 test, please contact your healthcare provider. By law, if you have insurance or have symptoms, your provider must provide a test. Please do not use public testing resources in advance of engaging in behaviors that spread the virus. Namely, to travel or gather with people outside of your household. We must ensure that testing is available for those that need it most, those that are sick, have had a high risk exposure and those with no other testing options. Noremember captioning only captures the moment of the test. A negative test is not a ticket to freely socialize without precautions. A negative covid test is not a particular kid to mingle with extended family and friends outside your immediate household. The main reason is that the test gives information about the level of the virus at one point in time. A person could be infected but not have enough virus yet for it to register on the test or a person may become infected in the hours or days after taking the test. A test should be used to indicate that you need medical care, need to isolate. Not as a free ticket to act like covid does not exist this Holiday Season and let down our guard. This is a once in a century pandemic, not the time to throw caution to the wind. This Holiday Season indeed will be like no other. It is so attempting for us to see our loved ones and to gather with our friends. We simply must stay at home. Stay home and celebrate thanksgiving with the people that we already live with. Please do not gather with people from other households, especially indoors. The choices we make this week wilwill determine what the remainder of the Holiday Season will look like. It will determine whether the winter ahead will be filled with more hospitalizations, cases, deaths or if we are able to beat that surge. You know what to do, San Francisco. We know how to slow the spread of the virus. You know what i am going to say again. Wear those masks. Do outdoor activities, stay physically distanced. Practice good hygiene and do not travel or gather for the holidays. We can crush this virus for a third time. We need to have a bit more patience and a bit more perseverance as we go forward together. The best gift this season is the gift of good health. Thank you. Thank you, dr. Colfax. At this time we welcome the director of the office of workforce development. Thank you, dr. Colfax for your update. I am the director of the office of economic and Work Force Development for San Francisco. As you just heard from dr. Colfax. We are assigned to the red tier. We are carrying with activities same status, same capacity for the last week when we were assigned to that red tier. Based on the Health Indicators that dr. Colfax shared, we do expect to be reassigned to the more restrictive purple tier. When that happens the city will be required to roll back or reduce capacity of several activities within 24 hours. To roll back or reduce capacity of several activities within 24 hours. This will require us to stop indoor operations at houses of worship, movie theaters, museums, zoos and fitness centers. We need to reduce all retail except Grocery Stores from 50 to 25 capacity. We will need to close outdoor ferris wheels, amusement style trains. At the same time within our around 48 hours being assigned to purple tier we have to comply with the limited stayathome order to curtail gatherings and non essential Business Activities after 10 00 p. M. We expect this to go in effect two days after we are assigned to the purple tier. You are assigned on monday, San Francisco would be assigned on a monday to the purple tier. Those 10 00 p. M. Restrictions would become activity and enforceable on wednesday, the following wednesday. If we are assigned purple on monday, wednesday at 10 00 p. M. That is when the limited stayathome order would be in enforceable effect. Additionally, in practice this means that all nonessential businesses will have to shut down operations at 10 00 p. M. With some exceptions. Specifically related to restaurants and curb side pickup and deliveries. All nonessential businesses shut down at 10 00 p. M. People may not gather with anyone from other households indoors or outdoors after 10 00 p. M. People may leave their homes after 10 00 p. M. Alone or with members of their household to pursue individual activities or access essential to employment or other services. Like i mentioned, restaurants may continue to overtakeout and Delivery Services after 10 00 p. M. They may not have customers seated outdoors for Outdoor Dining. At the same time we anticipate that San Francisco will largely confine any roll backs to those that are required by the state. I know many restaurants have been reaching out and asking if Outdoor Dining was potentially something that was being considered as part of purple. The answer is no. We are focused on the limited stayathome order and the restrictions that are listed in the states purple tier. The department of Public Health will be monitoring the Health Indicators to track how we are doing and ensuring we are doing the best to flatteten the curve and protect public safety. I want to emphasize our behavior not just businesses or others, our individual behavior in support of our Small Businesses and support o businesses tryingo support your Holiday Cheer and how we do that over the next two weeks will dictate the next two months. I want to very much thank the Business Community for their cooperation, for their diligence and initiative this Holiday Season. Also, i appreciate the questions you have been providing we have been doing our best to answer as the city to serve you to operate safely in San Francisco. I know we have been very encouraged by the health and Safety Measures of the businesses. Now we need everyone in the Business Community to keep it up, behind full, follow rules, we want all residents to follow those rules of Public Health guidance, take it seriously, keep on your mask, wash hands, stay socially distant to bring the case count down and minimize the restrictions in place. Thank you so much. Together we will get through this. Thank you, director colfax and torres for your time. We will begin the q a portion. Starting with director colfax, please. First question. From aaron with the San Francisco chronicle. It sounded like the city is certain last week San Francisco would be placed in the purple tier by today. Are things starting to improve or not looks as bad as a few days ago . Might we not end up in the purple tier at all . I think we should take comfort in the fact we have not yet been assigned the purple tier. If you look at the first slide, you can see the shrin the line t up. We expect to be assigned the purple tier. Getting the exact day right is beyond the science, data and fact. We project to go in the purple tier. If you look at the regional map, we are surrounded by purple. The fact we are in red should give nobody reasons for not taking precautions around the holidays with regard to gatherings and outside of people in the immediate household. We are hopeful to crush this third curve. We expect to be in purple relatively soon. Thank you. What is the city doing now to prepare for Vaccine Distribution in near and longterm. Could you repeat the question. From aaron as well. What is San Francisco doing now to prepare for Vaccine Distribution in the near and longterm . Thank you. It is some of the good news with regard to the vaccine trials in the last few weeks. Very promising. It will be months before widespread vaccine is available, according to our federal and state partners. We are preparing for Vaccine Distribution in the city. We have at our command center an extensive Planning Team looking at the opportunities working with key partners across the city, community partners, other stakeholders to ensure that we are as ready as possible. Much of the guidance around the vaccine will come from the feds and the state. Again, we are doing everything we can to be as prepared as possible locally. An example of that, we are Building Infrastructure with regard to vaccine preparedness. For instance, thanks to city administrator kelly, we purchased three ultracold freezers to store the vaccine. It can store hundreds of thousands of doses of vaccine. A lot of work to do there both locally, statewide and federally. I am confident we will be ready to start Vaccine Distribution when that time comes. Thank you, dr. Colfax. Director torres this is for you. If we move to the purple tier in San Francisco, which would mean closing museums. Will we only have 24 hours to close operations . Yes, thats correct. We know that is a burden. We are glad you are asking that. Plan effectively. Yes, you will only have 24 hours. For example if we were notified on monday within 24 hours on tuesday those activity would no longer be permitted under the purple tier. Thank you. At this time that concludes the q and a portion for today. Thank you both for your time. Any remaining questions, please feel free to respond to dem press at sfgovtv. That concludes todays press conference. Thank you. Thank you. [ ] [ ] [ ] welcome, my name is ramirez. I was born and raise in the mission here in San Francisco. I currently serve on the board of directors for the American Indian Cultural Center and i work as a research associate. Its an honor to be your masters of ceremonies tonight for American Indian heritage night. [speaking indigenous language] hello my precious relatives. Ive been asked to offer a prayer in honor of Indian Heritage month celebration. Its my honor to start us off in a good way and with that being said. [speaking indigenous language] thank you for allowing me to be here with all of my precious relatives in this space, in this time. I ask for continued blessings for all of them and our Indigenous People throughout Turtle Island and were giving thanks to our ancestors for sharing the tradition and the cultural ways and that beautiful legacy of resilience and expression of who we are as good human beings, as good relatives. Let us continue to celebrate and honor our history grandfather. Thank you for mother earth. Thank you for the sacred water. Thank you for all the traditional medicines. Thank you for bringing us together in this good way. O oh, oh, oh. First and foremost, we would like to acknowledge that were on the ancestral homeland for the original inhabitants of the San Francisco peninsula. In accordance to their traditions, they have never lost our forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as all people to reside in their traditional territory. We benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. We wish to pay our respectings by acknowledging the ancestors, elders, and relatives of the community and their sovereign rights as first people. We would like to welcome you to the American Indian heritage month celebration. For Indigenous Peoples, everyday is a day to celebrate our existence and tribals sovereignty. Take it away. [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] the American Indian Cultural Center along with mayor london breed are excited for tonights cultural event. Every year we come together with artists and our families to celebrate our culture and celebration. Due to the covid19 pandemic, we decided to come together in this digital platform to honor the American Indian community and bring hope and healing during this time when our people need it most. This years theme is ancestral resilience. 2020 has been a challenging year for so many of us as the covid19 virus left us with many unknowns. We witnessed the world being challenged by sickness, death, division, and racial injustices, loss of hope and the leadership in this country being put to the test. As indigenous sovereign nations, this is nothing new to our people. For native people, our way of dealing with this is to tap into our ancestral resilience, a resilience that has memory, that is in our d. N. A. And cannot be erased but channelled through our ancestors reminding us of why our people are still here. We see this ancestral resilience in our black and latinx brothers and sisters as they fight for social justice. This is a time of unity and standing together in solidarity with each other. Its our time to stand together and celebrate our voices of unity because we and our an z ancestors dreams. Im april, the executive director. I want to welcome you to tonights celebration. We have a line up of dancers and just honoring our community tonight. I just want to say thank you to all those who helped us make this event successful. Thank you for performing tonight, all the dancers that came, our emcee and thank you for celebrating our community tonight. A. R. C. C. Has been able to give out micro grants to our native artists and partner with our programs just to make sure our community is being served during this time of covid as we know it is a really hard time. We bring you this event today in hopes that it will bring some healing to you and just thank you so much everybody for allowing me to be in this space and serve you as your e. D. And thank you to our mayor london breed for all of her support in making sure that the American Indian community had this celebration tonight on this virtual platform and all of our supervisors who have supported us. Thank you so much. Hope you enjoy our evening. [ ] hello everyone. I wish we could all be together at city hall this evening to celebrate American Indian heritage month as we normally do, but this years celebration looks a little different. I know that we have been working tirelessly to fight the spread of covid19 and to make sure that those who are most vulnerable have access to food, housing, healthcare, and covid testing. I am so proud to be mayor of a city filled with communities that continue to push for change. Over and over, we have shown the world what we can accomplish, when we meet hatred with love and acceptance, when we acknowledge current and past injustices, and when we invest in communities. San francisco has been the home of incredible American Indian activism. Today we have amazing organizations serving this community and educating future generations about the history and contributions of American Indians, like the American Indian Cultural Center, the newly created American Indian cultural district, the native American Health center, which has worked to provide crucial resources for the American Indian community through the covid19 pandemic and the Indian Education program, which is focused on uplifting our American Indian students and their families. I am committed to working with our American Indian community to build up on our history and our progress, ensuring that San Francisco can remain home for our American Indian residents and place which acknowledges the legacy of American Indians in this country. With that, i am proud to present a proclamation declaring november 2020 to be American Indian heritage month in the city and county of San Francisco. Thank you all for joining us this evening virtually. Thank you to april, and the Host Committee who have worked so hard to put this event together. We have some incredible performances lined up for you this evening. I hope tonights celebration will bring you joy and pride, even during these difficult times. Thank you again and happy American Indian heritage month in San Francisco. [ ] thank you mayor breed. At this time i would like to welcome our next performer who is an artist, musicians and community activist. Please welcome ross. Welcome everyone. Native American Heritage celebration. I decided to share a song with you. This is juliane. And were here to make a special offering to you today. [ ] [ ] [ ] you want it you need it you got it believe it hel hello, hello, hello hello, hello, hello when the sun comes shining it reminds me of the way youre smiling come a little closer come over youre the breeze on my coastline hello, hello, hello hello, hello, hello i would now like to introduce the executive director of the American Culture district of San Francisco. Hello San Francisco. Im the executive director for the American Indian cultural district. It actually start with the American Indian Cultural Center where i partnered with my sister april to cofound the American Indian Cultural Center. My sister sits on the board helping us with the indigenous project. Were happy to work with the Cultural Center to build this cultural district for future generations. Happy native American Heritage month. Hi, my name is mary. I too want to join in and celebrate and recognize the American Indian heritage celebration here in San Francisco. I am the president of the American Indian cultural district. I just was newly et cetera wi will newly elected and i want to say that this is exciting times. We want to give much recognition to our community that have gone through so many changes and theyre now coming together and the importance of having a Cultural Center in the district where we can gather, we can teach our youth, we can bring our elders together to pass that knowledge to everybody. These are exciting times. To have this celebration at this time, to be able to say we are here, we will continue to be here, and we are strong. Thank you very much. [ ] the American Indian heritage Cultural Center would not be where we are without the support of the committee. The individuals embodies what it means to be community advocates. I have seen many of the members of the committee with the goal of having an American Indian Cultural Center for my entire lifetime. Were so grateful for the Community Members and would like to take time today to honor the Community Advisory members. [ ] be grateful be thankful be faithful be thankful be true aint nothing like seeing the rainbow aint nothing like [ ] covid19 has had a huge impact on indian country, putting our elders, language carriers and traditional knowledge bearers at risk. Tribal indian organizations have been working together to fight the pandemic. We asked the executive director of the California Consortium for American Indian health to offer a few remarks on the Community Response to covid19. Happy native American Heritage month. [speaking indigenous language] hi, my name is virginia. Im a member of the tribe and the executive director for the California Consortium for urban Indian Health. We have 10 urban Indian Health organization in california, including two programs based out of San Francisco. Its been my honor and privilege to lead this organization in particularly challenging times around covid19. Im really proud of the work weve been doing to address increasing Public Health messaging specific to the American Indian community, creating a network and holding our network of Domestic Violence providers during this time and ensuring that our Health Programs and our partners have support and have the information they need. Its also a policy Advocacy Organization and we have been advocating at all levels of federal, state, and local governments to ensure that our communities are not left out and were not forgotten in terms of testing, in terms of Vaccine Distribution and any Emergency Support services that could be made available to Community Members. American indians and alaskan natives are contracting covid19 at rates 3. 5 times that of our Nonhispanic White counterparts. Its very clear that the disparities exist for American Indians in terms of covid19 and will become more clear as the data becomes cleaned and is better available with accurate racial breakdowns. I want to thank you all for your work in uplifting the voices of American Indian and alaskan native people during this important month where we acknowledge and celebrate who we are in this country, the first people, the Indigenous People of this land and wishing you all a very healthy and safe time as we begin to close out november, native American Heritage month. [ ] every year the San Francisco American Indian community Honor Community leaders who have been doing Outstanding Community work. This year we want to shift the narrative to honor the Community Organizations that have been on the front lines of the covid response. These organizations workday in and day out to keep our community safe. Were thankful for their leadership and warrior spirits and want to take time to honor them today. The honorees of the American Heritage celebration are native American Health center, youth program. We also want to acknowledge the Honorable Mention for being the first of our native American Community to respond to the covid crisis. Thank you for your incredible work and dedication to the bay area native American Community. Now we will recognize the employees. [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] we have now reached the conclusion of our program. Thank you to all who helped make this event possible. We want to give special thanks to our elders for allowing us to speak to the community and mayor breed and the board of supervisors for offering our support, to the performers and speakers and to our board of directors. It was an honor for me to serve as your emcee today. We will now close out with a performance by our dancers. [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] commissioner regular meeting tuesday, november 10th. The time is 9 02. This meeting will be conducted via