Homelessness and supportive housing. Thank you all for joining us here today. As of today, may 4th, we have 1,624 cases of the coronavirus here in San Francisco and sadly, we have lost 29 people to the virus here in our city. And if you want more information, you can please visit datasf. Org covid19. Its or tracker with detailed information around testing and other helpful information by zip code that people may be interested in seeing. And today, i had a couple of things to talk about specifically, the new health order issued on friday by our county Health Officers and i really mention this on friday, but i think this is really exciting, that even though we still have challenges that exist, the ability to allow people to get back to work is so important. And construction in our city will be allowed, as well as outdoor businesses and today, i just want to express, again, my appreciation of the outdoor activities, outdoor businesses and how important it is to make sure that we start to gradually get back to business. We know our governor announced a plan that he will release on guidelines, as well as timing of when some of our Small Businesses, our book stores, small retailers can get back to work and i think its important that we provide some guidance. To be clear, the whole point of the Health Directive has everything to do with limiting our ability to be in contact with people so that we can avoid not only transmitting the virus or contracting it ourselves in the first place. And the ability to do that is critical, but we also realize there are a number of people out there that are struggling financially and if there is a way to accomplish the Public Health goal of keeping people safe with also allowing businesses to operate but to operate differently with certain guidelines, i think that we can definitely Work Together to achieve that goal and get to a better place. In fact, this weekend, i spent a lot of time in a lot of neighborhoods, all throughout the city, and actually, there was a flower shop on chestmut thachestnutopen and and availabe its considered an essential business. I dont remember being happy when i stood in line at a sixfeet distance and i didnt even care. I purchased flowers and i was so happy to purchase these flowers that in my house, i take them with whatever room i decide im going be in and thats the room that the flowers will travel in and its just, you appreciate things a lot more, but, also, i was so happy for the business that was able to open and when i looked around the area, i thought, with some of the retail businesses, why cant they do the same thing. They werent allowing any customers to come within their inside within their shop area. Its an outdoor flower shop and there was a divider up and a gate. And there was no way anyone was entering the business but the ability for people to stand in line and to purchase and get flowers was absolutely incredible. And the good news is, in in health order that was just issued, a florists are able to deliver flowers for mothers day and i hope many of will take this opportunity to either go online or call your local florist or put in an order for flowers, not just through this weekend for mothers day, but just in general because we want to continue to support that industry. We know flee market flea markete open again and youll see food trucks. Oftentimes, its one or two people working in these food trucks and they dont have the ability to manage a line and so, again, this goes into, you know, asking everyone to be supportive of maintaining your distance, wearing your mask and being respectful of one another so three cannot only continue to allow Street Vendors and all of these other great things, florists and gardeners, we want them to stay open and the only way tie lo we allow them to stan is when people follow the rules. As we look at other opportunities to allow nonessential businesses like our book stores and our Retail Stores where you can buy clothing or toys for kids or things of that nature, as we start to look at those opportunities, were going to be paying close attention to what weve already allowed. And if were not able to manage and maintain those wit with the distancing requirements, it will be difficult to start to get back to business. And so i just want to express my appreciation to all of the Small Businesses out there and, also, understanding that we know youre struggling and its going to be important for us to look at and implement new guidelines, but to also make sure that youre able to get back to business without compromising the incredible gains weve already made as it relates to flattening the curve, not reducing the curve. We still see the number of deaths go up and we still see the number of cases go up and we are by no means out of the woods on this, but we also recognise this there is a possibility to provide opportunities for Small Businesses to open safely with certain guidelines and we will continue to work with the governor and work with our Public Health officials to try and do it in a responsible way and we appreciate your patience and your cooperation. And, you know, again, as i spend a lot time in a lot of different neighborhoods all over the city just to get a feel for what was happening in the castro is by the beach and in other places, i did notice something really upsetting, and that is the number of people who were not socially distancing themselves at the deloris park. Deloris park continues to be a challenge because we know on nice days that is the place to be for so many folks. Its a great place, good energy, good weather and, unfortunately, again, we had a real challenge with people who were coming together in groups and not socially distancing themselves from one another and the work, the folks, our park rangers and other security, they had their work cut out. Were all adults here and theres no reason to send in any of our Law Enforcement or anyone to tell people what they should be already doing. And so, i bring up deloris park, because today is a nice day in San Francisco and our goal is to monitor deloris park within the next couple of days. And if we see that that behaviour has not changed, we will close of park and i want to be clear. This is the last thing i want do and we know that people need fresh air. They want to be out but if we continue to see that behaviour become problematic at deloris park, it will no longer be available. So im asking everyone to be cooperative and to make sure that theyre following social distancing. People are wearing their masks when appropriate do so so that we are able to continue to enjoy this incredible open space and, again, making sure that we do our best to enjoy open space within our own neighborhoods. And the other thing i want to talk about that i think is important is the fact that street cleaning has been a problem. And people are not moving their cars and what weve tried to do with the public, because there are certain people that may have contracted the virus and cant leave their homes, certain ederly people who, for whatever reason, cant move their cars and we were sensitive to that. But there are a lot abledbody people who are able to get up and move your car. And the problem that were having right now, a lot folks are not doing that, and at a time where we need to clean our streets the most, we dont environment luxury to allow this to continue. So, again, here is another warning. Not only will we start to implement ticketing around street cleaning, we will look at other ways in which we can address this particular issue if we dont see a change. So for those of you who are abled body and are not economic casick andget up and move your r street cleaning, im asking you do this. Or we will have no other choice to reimplement or ticketing procedures around street cleaning before this expires. Im counting on you to cooperate and to understand that there is a need to make sure that we keep or streets clean. And the fact is, we have people who are out there cleaning the streets, but passing blocks at a time because people are not moving their cars. And this is a real problem and its one that we cant continue to tolerate and so, were going to monitor the situation very closely around street cleaning this week and well have an announcement. If we think that nothing has changed to provide a plan of when we will be going back to ticketing. Lets involve making suri also t about our testing expansion for essential workers. As you know, what we are doing as we get the materials that we need and the Testing Capacity, we know that based on the tests that we do, whether or not we can expand those opportunities to more and more people, the ability to expand testing capacities is so important as we start to look at opening more businesses and reopening our city and having the ability to get people tested is so critical to that success. And today, we just want to announce that we are able to test all essential workers whether they exhibit symptoms or not. And this is definitely significant. This is a game changer here. The ability to allow Grocery Store clerks, our munidrivers and other people who are on the frontlines, our firefighters, Police Officers and nonprofit workers who were working with our Homeless Population in the shelters and if you are an essential worker and you exhibit symptoms or you dont significant symptoms, you still arexhibitsymptoms, you still ge. We want to encourage those who would like to be tested if you think youve been exposed or if you think you exhibit symptoms or not, please go to sf. Gov slash citytestsf and we have several locations were doing testing, including zuckerburg, San Francisco general, the Castro Mission health center, the Southeast Health center and maxine hall in the western addition. We dont want you to just show up but sign up and youll be directed to a specific location to be tested and this is going to make a world of difference in ensuring that we are aware and we keep the public safe, but i just want to remind people that just because you get tested, it doesnt mean that youre out of the woods. We still need you to socially distance yourself from folks. We still need to follow the order because you could be tested negative today and two days later come in contact with someone and later on be tested positive. So it doesnt mean that youre completely clear if you test negative on these tests. And this is a no means substitution for wearing your mask and socially distancing yourself from other people. The other thing this doesnt do is tell you whether you have the virus. If you think you have the virus and youve been in contact with people that might have or you exhibit symptoms, reach out and call 311 or check on the website i mentioned earlier. I also want to talk a little bit about our new testing policy at our Skilled Nursing facilities which you have probably all heard about already. Our goal is to try to focus on many of those congregate living settings where we know are the most vulnerable populations and starting this week, we will begin a new program to test all residents and staff at la goo la hospital and well be issuing a health order requiring yourself testing at the 21 private skillednursing facilities in San Francisco. So we are taking the lessons that we learned and responding to laguna honda and how we address that outbreak to make sure that we are supporting other nursing facilities in our city, whether we are directly responsible for it or not. Its important that everyone ensures the safety of not just the workers who work at these Skilled Nursing facilities but the patients, as well, who are amongst what we know are some of the most vulnerable when it comes to covid19 and this is really an incredible step forward. As i said, as our capacity increases for testing, we are going to continue to make sure that were focusing on areas where we know need it the most and prioritizing those areas. And i also want to be clear that any member of the public, whether you have insurance or not, whether youre documented or not, you can also get tested if you exhibit symptoms. So please dont let that be a barrier to your concern about your health. We are here to identify anyone who is covid positive so that we can proceed with either making sure that they are quarantined and protecting other members their families and that they have a place to actually quarantine. This is our priority, insurance or not, for anyone in San Francisco who exhibits symptoms. Again, you can visit our website or call 311. Ithe last thing i want to mentin is something that i am very concerned about and that is people, again, who ive mentioned before, people not Law Enforcement treating other members of the public like they are Law Enforcement. And we do not need people to get into alte altercations because y dont believe theyre following the direction of the Health Orders. So, for example, ive seen a lot of notices and a lot of concern that people have expressed about runners who are not Wearing Masks and the fact that that if you are running outdoors, youre not required to wear a mask. And i know that everyone thinks that run irs who are outdoors running should wear masks, but our guidance for who should and shouldnt be wearing a mask is coming from our Health Department is im asking you all to follow the guidance and, again, worry focus or yourself and what youre doing and make sure that youre wearing a mask, youre keeping your distanc distance and proteg yourself and families and please do your best to not try to inflict or police other people, especially when you are communicating the wrong message about what the order is or is not. That creates a lot of tension. That creates a lot of negativity is were all struggling with this and were all in the house and we dont want to be there. Im sure many of you have kids and youre children are driving you crazy right now and everyone is having a tough time. The last thing we need is people who think they are the Coronavirus Police and are here to tell everyone what to do. Because when you do that, it creates drama and it creates tension and we know that not everyone is following the rules. We understand that it has been challenging in some neighborhoods more so than others and that probably frustrates us all to no end. But i ask that you, again, focus on yourself and let us do our job to do us address the other challenges that exist, especially because in some instances, inaccurate information is provided as it relates to face covering. I want to focus on the fact that you can wear a mask or something that covers your nose and your mouth as a face covering. It doesnt have to be a mask. And you dont have to wear it when youre outdoors unless youre in line for an essential business. And so i just wanted to remind the public that i get that these are challenging times and all of us want to get out of this, you know, stayathome order as quickly as possible. We get through it by staying focused and following the Health Orders ourselves and second of all, we get through it by making sure that we are not engaging in really devicive and negative behaviour that can make this order prolonged or worse. And we are really in this together and what impacts one Community Impacts us all and we know that as great as San Francisco is doing, else those following the Health Directives, we know that not everyone is doing it, right. We know that there are some people who, for various reasons, are not following the Health Directive. And i know that in some cases, weve had businesses that the Police Department have shut down and theyve tried to implement social distancing in various neighborhoods, where we know we have problems and as we see the problems persist, well make adjustments. So i ask, again, for your patience, your cooperation, and i want to thank you all of you for continuing to support these Health Orders and just know that we are in a better place and we want to stay there and we are mindful of the need for so many people to get back to work because their livelilihood and the city is counting on it. We hopefully will have some better news after the guidelineses are issued to announce to get our city back even though it might be different when we open distances and restaurants and other places, we have to start somewhere. So thank you again for all of your cooperation. I would like to now introduce dr. Kolfax. Thank you, mayor breed. Im director for the city is county of San Francisco. Sadly, 29 people in San Francisco have died and i send condolences to their loved ones. 25,165 people as of today have been tested and an average of 9 have tested positive for covid19. We have made significant progress toward our goal of universal access to testing for all people in sanfrancisco and that is what i would like to focus on today. But first, i want to acknowledge that today is the first day of our new regional stayathome order for bay area residents. As we embark on the month of may, for some of us, it is with mixed feelings. While the data show that most people support ongoing and aggressive efforts to slow the virus, it is not easy for so many of us to do so. Believe me, i know. Not only because of how i feel at times, but because of the phone calls, the zoom meetings and emails and other communications that i get everyday. I share the frustration. I share the concern. And we are restless. It has been six weeks staying mostly indoors and as the weather grows nicer and summer becbeckons, people want to get outside and rejoin society. We miss our friends and family. , o