San Francisco Public Press (https://www.sfpublicpress.org/2020/12/)
No fireworks, no parties on the beach, no Golden Gate Park light displays. How is a San Franciscan wanting to celebrate the end of this murderous, soul-sucking pandemic year supposed to have any fun?
You could attend any one of numerous live-streamed events, from comedy shows to live music to bell-ringing ceremonies to vaudeville cabaret shows. » Read more
Newsrooms across the country have been in overdrive most of this year, covering a global pandemic, a primary and a presidential election and protests against systemic racism and police brutality. Contributors with YR Media, a national network of young journalists and artists, many of them people of color, have been covering the events of 2020 with reporting and perspectives that are rarely afforded space and attention in national or corporate outlets. » Read more
More than four of every five households receiving assistance from the city to cover housing costs have been Latino or African American, the groups hit hardest by COVID-19 infections, public records show.
Philanthropic donors have poured $31.4 million into the Give2SF Fund, $6.3 million of which is targeted at helping people cover housing costs, according to the fund’s most recent progress report. » Read more
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday that hospitals need to get ready for what he described as a potential “surge on top of a surge, arguably on top of another surge” of COVID-19 cases stemming from the holidays. In the Bay Area, hospitals still have some ICU capacity left, but health care practitioners are working hard to care for the influx of COVID-19 patients. » Read more
San Francisco remains in the most dangerous surge of the COVID-19 pandemic, but there are signs that people’s adherence to the recent stay-at-home orders are helping.
Dr. Grant Colfax, the director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, said that a new trend means the city may yet avoid hundreds of additional deaths from COVID-19. » Read more
The FBI arrest of former San Francisco Department of Public Works head Mohammed Nuru on fraud charges in January kicked off a cascade of raids, charges and investigations that have spurred the departure of several other city department heads.
More charges could be yet to come. » Read more
The election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the presidency and vice-presidency left several roles for Gov. Gavin Newsom to fill, and politicians from around the state, including San Francisco Mayor London Breed, have weighed in on Newsom’s choice of Secretary of State Alex Padilla to fill Harris’ seat in the U.S. » Read more
Nursing home residents and staff are near the front of the line to receive the estimated 2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses California expects to distribute by the end of this year. Long-term care and nursing facilities have seen deadly outbreaks. Earlier this year, the California Healthcare Foundation studied outbreaks in nursing homes and found that in May, a quarter of nursing homes had a resident with coronavirus infections and at 16% of them, at least one resident had died from complications of COVID-19. » Read more
Mayor London Breed on Tuesday called Gov. Gavin Newsom’s appointment of Secretary of State Alex Padilla to fill the Senate seat being vacated by Vice-President-Elect Kamala Harris “unfortunate.”
“The sad reality is she was the only African American woman in the Senate at this time,” said Breed, describing the decision as a blow to the African American community, to African-American women and to women in general. » Read more
UPDATE Dec. 23, 2020: Adds detail on revisions to November data.
Coronavirus cases have soared this month among San Francisco’s homeless population and residents of the city’s single-room-occupancy hotels. The city reported 59 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among unhoused people from Dec. » Read more