Omicron Leaves SF With Hundreds of Public Employees Out Sick

With the number of new COVID-19 cases rapidly increasing once again, San Francisco is seeing its public services short-staffed, city officials said at a virtual press conference on Tuesday. The surge, directly linked to the omicron variant, has affected key city agencies, from Muni to the police department.

As of Tuesday, 167 police officers were reported to be in quarantine — that's roughly 8% of the city's police force. One hundred and thirty-five members of the fire department and 68 SFMTA employees also are isolating due to COVID-19 infections. And the United Educators of San Francisco (UESF) confirmed separately with KQED that 626 educators across the city's public schools called in sick on Tuesday.

Mayor London Breed said during the conference that the current challenge is keeping the city's workforce numbers up through the surge. But she stressed that public services will continue to operate as normal and that the city is not planning to impose any new restrictions on indoor dining, shopping or social events despite the uptick in cases.

"Frontline workers will be putting in overtime to make up for their quarantined colleagues," she said. "Trash is still being picked up, police are still on patrol and firefighters stand ready to respond."

But Muni users could see longer wait times, SFMTA officials shared. Twenty-eight Muni operators are in quarantine while others are out supporting family members affected by the surge. At the moment, no announcement has been made of any bus lines being canceled or route schedules permanently changing.

On Wednesday, the city registered a weekly average of 941 new cases per day — an all-time high that is more than double what public officials registered during the surge of January 2021, when the city still had in place strict restrictions on indoor public spaces.

Breed added that San Francisco finds itself in a very different situation from past surges thanks to its high vaccination rate — 85% of the city's eligible population has been vaccinated, and 59% have already received their booster shot as of Wednesday. While researchers have found that omicron has the ability to bypass immune protection and cause breakthrough infections, vaccines and booster shots are still highly successful at preventing serious illness and hospitalization.

"Omicron is facing a wall of immunity as it moves through the city," said City Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax. "Our vaccinations and boosters are doing what we need them to do right now, which is preventing many people from getting sick and being hospitalized."

But the sheer number of new infections does affect hospitalizations, he explained. According to the latest city data on Wednesday, 91 patients are receiving intensive care. That's much fewer than the historic peak of 256 from January 2021 but still represents a 54% increase from the week prior.

The city currently has enough beds to manage this volume, said Colfax, and added that health officials expect cases to peak in the next couple of weeks, partly due to gatherings during the holiday season.

"The large number of people contracting COVID has an impact on our hospitals, businesses, schools and essential city services," he said.

However, many essential workers have expressed their frustration with city officials at what they feel is a lack of preparedness and attention to the risks of omicron.

Despite the Department of Public Health conducting approximately 25,000 coronavirus tests last week — nearly double its capacity from the start of December — many testing sites are still struggling with an increased demand for tests that results in long lines and waiting times that can stretch for hours.

UESF officials announced via Twitter that they are ready to negotiate with the school district to secure COVID-19 sick leave and improve access to testing and KN95 masks. The union expects to meet with district officials on Thursday morning.

For now, SFUSD does not plan a return to distance learning. Colfax announced his support of this decision at Tuesday's conference.

"Even with the increase of additional cases, we have learned that the mental health and educational impacts on students due to social isolation far outweigh the challenges of in-person learning," he said.

Breed, for her part, insisted that the current surge will be brief and asked residents to avoid activities that may result in COVID-19 exposure.

"To put it simply," she said, "right now, we're learning what it means to live with COVID."