San Francisco announced on Thursday that it is extending its stay-at-home orders and 10-day travel quarantine.
Both orders will remain in effect until California cancels its stay-at-home order for the entire Bay Area region. Even then, officials in San Francisco will reassess coronavirus-related data, such as the availability of intensive care beds, to make sure they are comfortable letting go of the current restrictions.
“We have been proactive in setting the home stay mandate and travel quarantine to protect the San Franciscans and in the hope that by acting quickly we can flatten the curve and reopen faster,” Mayor London Breed said in a statement. “This seems to be working, but we need more time to determine that we are heading in the right direction and that the December holiday is not holding us back. There is hope and now is not the time to give up.”
The travel quarantine order, which was enacted on Dec. 17, requires people traveling to San Francisco from outside the Bay Area to be quarantined for 10 days.
The order for the city and county to stay home went into effect on December 3. Two weeks later, it became mandatory by the state under the regional home stay mandate as the availability of ICU beds in the Bay Area region fell below 15%. . The state could lift its order for the Bay Area region as early as Jan. 7, but San Francisco doesn’t expect this to happen due to rising case numbers and taxed ICUs.
San Francisco said both health orders appear to have slowed infection rates.
“While the number of cases continues to increase, they are increasing more slowly than when orders were executed,” the city and county said in a statement. “Our collective actions may have resulted in more than 400 deaths.”