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SF public health official outlines contact tracing; mayor announces phased summer programs starting June 15
Summary
Dr. Darpan Sakhdev described San Francisco's contact tracing team of about 100 staff and free testing for symptomatic residents; Mayor London Breed and city agencies announced plans to allow summer programming and camps to resume under strict public-health guidance beginning June 15.
Dr. Darpan Sakhdev of the San Francisco Department of Public Health told viewers that the city's contact tracing and case investigation program began on March 5 and now employs nearly 100 staff to reach people diagnosed with COVID-19 and their contacts.
"We started case investigating and contact tracing on the first day that we had a case here in San Francisco," Sakhdev said. She described a process that includes calling people who test positive to collect exposure information, identify close contacts and connect cases and contacts to testing and wraparound services.
Sakhdev said the department's Mission District testing campaign found a disproportionate impact on Latino residents and that about 90% of diagnosed people could not work from home, emphasizing the need for linguistically and culturally appropriate outreach and for hotel rooms or other supports to enable safe isolation.
On testing access she said San Francisco offers free testing for any resident with even one symptom consistent with COVID-19, and that results generally return within one to five days.
Sakhdev said the department is "carefully looking at the possibility of apps" to support tracing, but stressed that any tool must protect privacy, be voluntary and supplement—not replace—investigations conducted by trained staff. Her succinct public guidance: "cover your face, test early, and trace."
Separately, Mayor London Breed and city recreation and children-and-family officials outlined a phased plan to resume summer programming beginning June 15. Rec & Park director Phil Ginsburg said camps will operate in small, stable pods (about 12 children), with minimum three-week sessions to limit cross-mixing; priority registration will go to children currently in emergency childcare and scholarship programs.
Maria (DCYF) said the city expects roughly 100 nonprofit camp providers and an additional number of private providers to operate under public-health guidelines; registration details will appear on DCYF and Rec & Park web pages.
Next steps: the department will continue to expand testing and tracing capacity and evaluate app options; Rec & Park and DCYF will publish operational guidelines and registration dates.
