Seven San Francisco Bay Area counties will be extending shelter-in-place orders through to the end of May amid the CCP virus pandemic.
However, the extended orders, which were initially set to expire May 3, will include limited easing of specific restrictions for a small number of lower-risk activities, although officials stressed that “prematurely lifting” some restrictions could “easily lead to a large surge in cases.”
“Thanks to the collective effort and sacrifice of the 7 million residents across our jurisdictions, we have made substantial progress in slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus, ensuring our local hospitals are not overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases, and saving lives,” the health officers said in a joint statement.
“At this stage of the pandemic, however, it is critical that our collective efforts continue so that we do not lose the progress we have achieved together. Hospitalizations have leveled, but more work is needed to safely re-open our communities. Prematurely lifting restrictions could easily lead to a large surge in cases,” they added.
Officials will release further details later this week, along with the updated order.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty because we see the numbers (of positive COVID-19 cases) go up every day in our city,” she said. “We also see the number of hospitalizations and they also go up, and the good news we see they have not gone up like other places because you are all doing your part to comply, but the fact is they are still going up.”
Breed said that are currently 1,424 known cases of the CCP virus in San Francisco, while 23 people have died from the disease that originated in Wuhan, China, in at least December last year.
A further 85 people have been hospitalised, Breed said.