US San Francisco to adjust reopening due to rapid increase in COVID-19 cases

SAN FRANCISCO -- US San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Tuesday announced the city will adjust its reopening due to a significant and rapid increase in COVID-19 case rates in the city, coupled with the current increase in cases and hospitalizations in California and across the United States.

According to the announcement, San Francisco will temporarily roll back the reopening of indoor dining, and will reduce the capacity of fitness centers and movie theaters. The city will also pause the reopening of indoor instruction at high schools that have not already opened. These changes will go into effect at 11:59 pm on Friday.

"The Department of Public Health will continue to closely monitor the city's case count, infection rate, and hospitalization rate to determine how quickly we can flatten the curve and determine when we can resume safe reopening," the announcement said.

"I know this is not the news our residents and businesses wanted to hear, but ... we're making decisions based on the data we're seeing on the ground," said Breed.

"We will continue to act in the best interest of public health and we'll continue to help our impacted businesses as much as we are able," she noted.

"As always, we must listen to the data. The data is now telling us this virus is rapidly traveling throughout our city," said Grant Colfax, San Francisco director of health.

Since Oct. 2, San Francisco has experienced a 250 percent increase in COVID-19 cases.

One of the key indicators of COVID-19 prevalence in the city, the number of new cases per day per 100,000 people, has more than doubled over the last three weeks from a low of 3.7 cases to 9 cases per 100,000 people.