San Francisco's COVID-19 case numbers continue climbing to record levels, with renewed calls from students and parents to shut down classes until the omicron variant's surge passes.
The city averaged 158.4 new cases per day for every 100,000 residents in the week ending Jan. 3, when San Francisco's dashboard last provided a case rate. That rate was more than triple what it was during the last peak, when the delta variant surged through San Francisco last summer, and it's putting extreme pressure on the demand for COVID-19 tests.
Among the city residents who have been able to access tests, nearly one in five are coming back positive, according to Dr. Grant Colfax, the city's public health director.
"We know testing is a major issue," San Francisco Mayor London Breed said on Tuesday. "This is a problem not just here, but all over the country. The truth is, the Department of Public Health has pushed its capacity during this latest surge."
Breed signed a health order in August requiring private insurance companies to prove they are providing testing for their members. She issued another one Tuesday, promising $10,000 fines to companies that don't comply.
Eighty-one percent of all San Francisco residents have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and the COVID-positvity rates were much higher for unvaccinated residents as of Jan. 3. San Francisco does not intend to impose new restrictions, and officials said Tuesday they remain determined to keep schools open.
"To support these efforts, we have supplied an initial 1,000 rapid antigen tests to the district, with more to come," Breed said.
All public school students and teachers should also receive home tests that have arrived from the state by the end of this week.
More than 600 San Francisco Unified School District teachers called in sick last Thursday following the circulation of an online petition calling on the district to temporarily hold classes online and increase COVID-19 protections. Parents and students are starting to echo those concerns.
Mission High School parents and students told KCBS Radio the school is experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak. Nearly three-quarters of the school’s student body was Hispanic or Black during the 2021-22 school year, according to district data, and Hispanic and Black San Franciscans have been among the hardest hit during the pandemic.
"People are still sending their kids to school after they have COVID symptoms, and people are spreading it to other kids," Kyra Butler, a 10th-grader at Mission High School who said she was staying home to protect her family, told KCBS Radio on Tuesday. "And it's unsafe and unsanitary."
A district spokesperson told KCBS Radio they are following the district's protocols for positive cases, which call for students and staff to return after five days of isolation if they are no longer symptomatic and have tested negative.
Still, some parents, like Anetra Neely, said they believe it’s time for the district to hold classes online. Neely told KCBS Radio she thought classes should be remote for a month.
"I feel like the district should send everybody home, and stop trying to keep their budget," Neely said, referring to the district not receiving state funding for each day it holds classes online.
State, city and district officials have said they remain committed to keeping students in the classroom, citing the pandemic’s impact on children's mental health and educational outcomes.
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