San Francisco Health Commission hears surge plans, warns testing and supplies remain constrained

San Francisco's public-health leaders told the Health Commission on March 17 that the city was facing community spread of COVID-19, had 43 diagnosed cases and had moved to regional suppression measures including a joint shelter-in-place order.

"We are at 43 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 in San Francisco," Director of Health Grant Colfax said, adding that the department was seeing evidence of community spread and was focusing on three priorities: social distancing, protecting vulnerable people and protecting health-care workers.

Health Officer Thomas Aragon told commissioners that "hours matter," describing a progression of public-health strategies and saying the city had begun implementing suppression measures intended to drive the reproductive number below 1. "The shelter-in-place order really provided the best intervention from public health that we are aware of at this time to decrease the spread of the virus," he said.

Hospital officials described steps taken to create bed and staffing capacity. "We're setting up a tracking system among all the hospitals, and a joint surge plan that will help us…