San Francisco offered a sobering update about the COVID-19 pandemic Friday by saying very plainly “we are surging again.”
The city's health director also offered some perspective on breakthrough cases among fully vaccinated residents.
“We are also in the midst fourth of surge here in the city,” said Dr. Grant Colfax with San Francisco’s Department of Public Health.
Colfax said that the recent COVID-19 surge is driven by the delta variant despite the city’s high vaccination rates.
“The rate of increase actually happening faster than what we saw with our prior three surges,” he added.
As cases continue to rise, there is new data about the effectiveness of the vaccine at preventing infections.
“You can see from the data the rate among people who are not fully vaccinated is 36.8. The rate among people are fully vaccinated in 16.2. Again, that is evidence that these vaccines are working,” Colfax added.
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The city has also addressed questions about the efficacy of the vaccine.
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“They’re not as effective at preventing break through infections as they are at hospitalizations. But really at the beginning of the pandemic the emphasis was on preventing serious morbidity and mortality and right now the vaccines are performing extremely well,” Colfax said.
Colfax added those who are fully vaccinated for COVID-19 are nine times less likely to be hospitalized as those who aren’t and they’re looking at next steps.
“We are very vigorously exploring issuing an indoor mask mandate and in discussions with surrounding counties and health officers in regard to that,” Colfax said.
