Health

Coronavirus updates: 28 members of a California family all infected, father dead

June 30, 2020

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Alexander Panis, nurse practitioner at St. John’s Well Child and Family Center, prepares a COVID-19 test on Thursday, June 25, 2020, in the Wilmington area of Los Angeles.

Alexander Panis, nurse practitioner at St. John’s Well Child and Family Center, prepares a COVID-19 test on Thursday, June 25, 2020, in the Wilmington area of Los Angeles.

Photo: Ashley Landis, Associated Press

Photo: Ashley Landis, Associated Press

Alexander Panis, nurse practitioner at St. John’s Well Child and Family Center, prepares a COVID-19 test on Thursday, June 25, 2020, in the Wilmington area of Los Angeles.

Photo: Ashley Landis, Associated Press

LATEST June 30, 1:30 p.m. San Francisco Mayor London Breed is appealing to San Franciscans to stay home for the Fourth of July to help curb the spread of coronavirus.

“The Fourth of July is normally a time to gather and celebrate with family, friends and neighbors. Unfortunately these are not normal times, and these types of gatherings are the environments in which COVID-19 spread,” said Mayor Breed in a press release. “It is critical that all of us continue to follow the Health Orders designed to protect our safety. Please think carefully and act responsibly this weekend.”

On Monday, official fireworks shows across the Bay Area were canceled to discourage large gatherings of spectators.

June 30, 1:00 p.m. In its Budget and Fiscal Update for FY 2021-2022, the SFMTA outlined survey results regarding how ridership might change in the near and long-term future for public transit. The agency expects to see a baseline 20% ridership drop going forward, attributed to a rise in permanent remote work prompted by the coronavirus pandemic.

The update also outlined survey results compiled from 25,000 adults. Researchers found that 20% of respondents who used buses and public transit regularly before the outbreak said they now now longer would, and 28% said they would use these services less often. Additionally, more than 50% of respondents said they “would either use these less or stop using [rideshare options] completely.”

As a result, the SFMTA is planning accordingly. “Do not expect to return to the transit system you were used to before,” the budget update notes. “We will continue to transform transit and move Muni Forward.”

June 30, 12:30 p.m. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday the state has procured 15,679 hotel and motel rooms as part of an initiative to house people living on the street during the coronavirus pandemic.

Project Roomkey launched in April as the first of its type in the country and as of today 85% of those rooms are in use and 14,200 have been housed, the governor said.

Newsom explained the program provides, “a room, a key, a lock” for people living in their cars, in shelters, in encampments, or on the street.

The governor said he signed the state’s budget on Monday and it includes an additional $1.3 billion for cities and counties to support homeless programs such as Project Roomkey. The funding will also help support a new program called Project Home Key that will allow the state to not only lease but acquire longterm housing for people on the streets.

June 30, 12:20 p.m. Rent is due tomorrow and some San Francisco landlords don’t want the new COVID-19 Tenant Protections Ordinance to stop them from collecting it.

On Monday, four landlord and realtor groups filed a lawsuit against the city to obtain a temporary restraining order that would suspend the law immediately, according to KQED.

The ordinance was signed by Mayor London Breed last Friday, permanently prohibiting a residential landlord from pursuing an eviction for nonpayment of rent due to COVID-19 from April through July.

Read more from SFGATE Editor Tessa McLean.

June 30, 12:10 p.m. The U.S. is “going in the wrong direction” with the coronavirus surging badly enough that Dr. Anthony Fauci told senators Tuesday some regions are putting the entire country at risk — just as schools and colleges are wrestling with how to safely reopen.

With about 40,000 new cases being reported a day, Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, said he “would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around.”

“I am very concerned,” he told a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee.

Infections are rising rapidly mostly in parts of the West and South, and Fauci and other public health experts said Americans everywhere will have to start following key recommendations if they want to get back to more normal activities like going to school.

“We’ve got to get the message out that we are all in this together,” by wearing masks in public and keeping out of crowds, said Fauci, infectious disease chief at the National Institutes of Health.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Read more here.

June 30, 11:50 a.m. An NPR report Tuesday outlines two methods for fighting COVID-19.

One is the mitigation method, which consists of testing symptomatic people and employing contact tracing and isolation with a target of a positive test rate of under 10%. The other is the suppression method, which involves testing asymptomatic people in high-risk environments, contact tracing and isolation with a targeted test rate of under 3%.

Currently, 32 states, including California, have not achieved mitigation or suppression. California would need to conduct 824,901 daily tests, or 2,088 per 100,000 people, but is currently averaging 92,858 tests per day, or 235 per 100,000 people.