San Francisco Declares State of Emergency to Deal with COVID-19
The mayor of San Francisco declared a state of emergency over Covid-19 fears on Tuesday shortly after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning that the U.S. will likely see more cases.
San Francisco is the first American city to announce an emergency declaration for the novel coronavirus. There are no confirmed cases in the city, but officials want to begin preparing before conditions become uncontrollable.
There are 57 known cases in the U.S. and no cases in San Francisco, but Mayor London Breed pointed to the virus’ unpredictability and troubling global growth.
“We see the virus spreading in new parts of the world every day, and we are taking the necessary steps to protect San Franciscans from harm,” Breed said. She said many of the city’s residents travel to mainland China, so it is not far-fetched to suspect cases in the future.
In order for SF to be as prepared as possible for COVID-19 (novel coronavirus), today I made an emergency declaration to strengthen SF's response in the case of an outbreak. To be clear, there remain no known cases originating in SF–this is about preparedness.
— London Breed (@LondonBreed) February 25, 2020
U.C. San Francisco successfully treated two cases earlier this month. The declaration is effective immediately and will be voted on early next month. San Diego and Santa Clara counties have made similar declarations.
China, by far, still has the most cases and deaths from the illness, though its rise in numbers has slowed recently. Chinese officials Wednesday reported another 406 cases and 52 additional deaths, all of them in hard-hit Hubei province and all but 10 in the epicenter of the city of Wuhan.