Covid Tracker: 25,135 cases, 205 deaths

Good Morning, Mission! Welcome to Virus Village, your daily Covid-19 data dump.

Quite a day yesterday, right?

On the pandemic front (remember that?), some relatively encouraging news with respect to immunity and treatment.

In the City, Malia Cohen has been elected to the presidency of the Police Commission, while the (very colorful) Youth Commission discusses its budget.

And in an poignant video, 10-year old Abby dreams of space.

Scroll down for today’s Covid numbers.

Between December 5 and January 3, DPH reports new Mission cases shot up again to 803 for a total of 3114, or 52.1 cases per 1000 residents.  

Another day, another record number of hospitalizations, including confirmed and suspected Covid patients and 3 ICU transfers.   For the week ending January 5, the weekly change in Covid positive patients rose  6 percent (which is within the DPH goal of keeping the weekly change below 10 percent). During that week,  the seven-day average availability of ICU beds was 33 percent and for Acute Care beds 30 percent. On January 5, DPH reports SF hospitals reported a big drop to 63 ICU beds and 360 Acute Care beds available. These daily numbers are in continuous flux and rarely track with the weekly averages. DPH does not report if available beds are staffed, but continues to assert 100 percent of required PPE on hand.

Though CADPH reports a small drop in the number of ICU patients, that may not be such good news.

As case numbers and positivity rates continue going up, estimates for San Francisco place the R number around a relatively stable 1.05. Estimates for California also indicate a more stable transmission rate, ranging from .91 to 1.09. 

Since Christmas day, the weekly average number of new cases has been on an upward trajectory. DPH reports that for the week ending December 30, the seven-day average of new cases rose again to 264, or 30.4 daily new cases per 100,000 residents. 

As the City has begun testing more in highly impacted neighborhoods like the Mission and Bayview-Hunters Point, the positivity rate has risen. For the week ending December 30, the  Citywide weekly average positivity rate rose to 5.24 percent, surpassing 5 percent for the first time since May 5.

In December 50.1 percent of the cases were men, 49.1 percent women. Men account for approximately 66 percent of all deaths.

DPH is now reporting deaths sooner than in previous months. That may account for the high number of deaths where underlying conditions are unknown. The high percentage of “unknowns” (23.4 percent) may also reflect the number of people dying who do not have health insurance or who are not enrolled in a health plan.