Good morning Mission. And welcome to Virus Village, your daily data dump.
SalivaDirect, one of the new quicker tests, has been granted emergency authorization by the FDA which means we may be able to avoid the nasal swabs soon. The test, developed by Yale and the NBA, provides much faster results with no less accuracy, and none of the specialized equipment and chemicals used by the current testing method (PCR).
San Francisco has consistently kept case and death figures below other equally dense American cities. Wired Magazine takes a look at some of the factors which has made that possible.
Speaking of good reads, check out Joe’s latest on Kamala Harris and Julian’s coverage of Ronnie Goodman’s memorial at 16th and Capp.
Scroll down for today’s the numbers.
HiGeorge, a data visualization startup, developed some new visualizations for Mission Local, which we will be using and fine-tuning in the days to come.
Only 2 (!!) new cases were attributed to the Mission bringing the total to 1165.
Although Gov. Newsom and state health officials say the state has fixed its underreporting glitch, San Francisco’s Department of Public Health continues to warn “[c]ases and tests are currently underreported.” Cases and testing numbers less than a week ago are still considered to be “less reliable”. With that in mind, note that on August 10, the average daily number of cases was 91, or around 10.5 per 100,000 residents. The number has been fluctuating between 90 and 100 since July 28, considered by DPH to be red zone high alert.
The same caveats on underreporting and more or less reliable apply to testing and positivity numbers. The positivity rate has been below 4 percent since July 28, and has been flutuating around 3 percent for the past couple weeks.
Between August 14 and August 15, 9 Covid confirmed or suspected patients were released from ICU and 4 were added to Acute Care as the Covid patient population continued to slightly drop from earlier last week. As of August 15, 92 ICU beds, and 427 Acute Care beds were available.
After slowly falling, the R number for San Francisco has flattened somewhat in most models. Numbers for adjacent counties, other than Marin, remain higher.
People of color continue to suffer the brunt of the virus, reflecting work and housing conditions as well as increased testing in the City’s south and southeastern neighborhoods.
The relatively low number of deaths speaks well of our hospitals (especially UCSF and SFGH, community groups like the Latino Task Force and Rafiki Coalition and public compliance with the City’s health directives. Of the 69 deaths, 64 suffered from one or more underlying condition.
Case Count graph: How can 7 day average at peak in late July be way higher than any one day total?
With 40% asymptomatic and spread coming from 20-40 age range, we will never get this under control without a cheap home test kit.
Because of two different scales – 7 day average scale on right max is 130, one day total scale on left max is 180.
But really for this graph, the 7 day average line and the one day total bar graphs should use the same scale. Easier to understand.