Good Morning Mission, and welcome to Virus Village, your daily Covid-19 data dump.
Yesterday in Washington there was a heated interchange (nothing new) between Sen. Rand Paul and Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) over the origins of the Covid pandemic and the responsibility of NIAID and the National Institues of Health (NIH). The media portrayed it mainly along the lines of political “he said she said” suggesting Paul was pursuing another case of Trumpian conspiracy-mongering. It’s not that simple, as a more comprehensive report, appearing in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, makes clear. And it’s not only a problem of Wuhan and Covid. Largely unregluated virology labs operate all over the world.
The potential problem of the virology labs represents one reason, among numerous others revealed over the past year, as to why global health reform should be an urgent priority.
Meanwhile CCSF reversed plans to lay off professors and cutting classes. Instead it cut teacher salaries at a time when California reports a “staggering” budget surplus.
Scroll down for today’s Covid numbers.
The CDC data used for the chart lags behind the data supplied from SFDPH. As of May 11, DPH reports over Ā 75 percentĀ (574,372) of San Francisco residents over 16 had received one dose, and Ā 57 percentĀ (439,753) are completely vaccinated.Ā On May 11, the seven-day rolling average of shots per day wasĀ 7,888. For information on where to get vaccinated in and around the Mission, visit ourĀ Vaccination Page.
Covid-19 R EstimationĀ dropped its San Francisco R number estimate to .83, while maintaining its estimate for California around .95. All models in theĀ ensembleĀ show San Francisco and California below 1, with a San Francisco average estimate ofĀ .77, and California’s average estimate at .9.
In most SF neighborhoods cases have been either low, very low, or dropping. This is not true for all neighborhoods. Between April 7 and May 8, DPH reportsĀ 76Ā new cases in the Mission orĀ 12.7 new cases per 10,000 residents. Bayview Hunters Point had 94 new cases and a rate of 25.1 new cases per 10,000 residents. The only other neighborhood with more than 40 new cases was the Western Addition with 49. Only six other neighborhoods including FiDi/South Beach, Visitacion Valley, Marina, Potrero Hill, Hayes Valley and SOMA had rates exceeding 10 new cases per 10,000 residents.
For the week ending May 4, the seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in the City wasĀ 26Ā new cases, orĀ 3 new cases per day per 100,000 residents.
Based on the group’s population size, Pacific Islanders had an April case rate of 92.8 (though only 25 new cases), Blacks had a rate of 34.2 (149 new cases), Native Americans 22 (3 new cases), Latinx 12.7 (169 new cases), Whites 8.8 (312 new cases) Multi-racials 7.3 (27 new cases) and Asians 5.6 (166 new cases). The Citywide April case rate was 10.6.
Reflecting last week’s rise in Acute Care Covid patients, for the week ending May 8, the rate of weekly change in Covid positive patients roseĀ 4Ā percent.Ā Ā During that week,Ā the seven-day average availability of ICU beds wasĀ 36 percentĀ and Acute Care availability wasĀ 25 percent. On May 8, DPH reports Covid patients comprisedĀ 3.2 percentĀ of ICU occupancy andĀ .9 percentĀ of Acute Care occupancy and the City hadĀ 100 percentĀ ICU andĀ 100 percentĀ Acute Care surge capacity.
The latest data from the Federal Health and Human Services department shows last week SFGH had 7 Covid patients and an 81 percent ICU occupancy rate. Across the Mission, CCMP had 0 Covid patients and a 30 percent ICU occupancy rate.
Between March 8 and May 7, Mission residents had a positivity rate of .93 percent based on 19,767 tests. Ten neighborhoods had positivity rates higher than 1, including Visitacion Valley, Bayview Hunters Point, Marina, Western Addition, Tenderloin, FiDi/South Beach, SOMA, North Beach, Chinatown and Nob Hill.
In April, DPH reports 509 cases among heterosexuals, 20 among gay/lesbians, 10 among bisexuals and 3 among “other”. The sexual orientation of 215 cases were unknown and 52 of those who tested positively declined to state their sexual orientation.
Two days ago, DPH reported 8 Covid-related deaths in April. Yesterday that number fell back to 6, and today with a new death reported, the toll remains at 6 Covid-related deaths in April and 0 in May. The last death was reported on April 26.
Thanks, as always, for your excellent work here. And thanks for linking to Nicholas Wade’s piece. This story is hugely important, and its absence from most media outlets is troubling.