Published on April 21, 2020 at 02:55AM by
The city of San Francisco released more detailed geographic data related to COVID-19 cases Monday, segmenting case numbers by city zip code. To date, the city has tested 11,250 people in S.F., with about 1,200 of the tests being returned positive.
City-wide, the rate of positive test results is 14.07 per 10,000 people.
As Mayor London Breed stated in a press conference, the data illuminates "some of the disparities we knew" — that residents in some neighborhoods who are more at risk of income and health discrepancies have disproportionately tested positive for the coronavirus.
“We see in the Mission there are more cases, which is consistent with our findings,” Breed said. “About 25% of those infected are Latino, but the Latino community represents 15% of the population, so there’s a huge disparity there."
The Mission District, denoted by the zip code 94110, has the fourth-highest case rate in the city, with 22.51 cases per 10,000 residents. Dr. Grant Colfax, Director of the Department of Public Health, attributes this high rate of cases in part to instances of families living in multi-generational households where it is harder to socially distance.
Parts of SoMa, the Bayview, the Dogpatch, Potrero Hill and Hunters Point have also weathered a significant number of cases. In SoMa, the worst-hit neighborhood and an epicenter of homelessness, health officials recorded 29.27 cases per every 10,000 residents. The zip code 94107, for instance, includes the MSC shelter, where a large COVID-19 outbreak occurred.
As Colfax explained, populations most affected by differences in health and income disparities as well as structural racism “are also going to be the areas most affected by this pandemic.”
“Unfortunately, health emergencies exploit the unequal in society,” Colfax continued. “People with chronic illness, underlying health conditions and communities that have experience institutionalized stigma and discrimination are going to be more at risk for getting sick.”
Health officials currently have no plans to release fatality information by zip code.
Colfax called the 20 deaths from COVID-19 in San Francisco “concerning,” but noted the number is less than in other jurisdictions. As those numbers increase, he said, the city will share the “data as appropriate” on the city case tracker.
For now, Colfax stressed the importance of not rushing to conclusions about the data by zip code. Most importantly, the data omits results from one-third of all tests which did not include the locality information. It also does not suggest that being in any one neighborhood is less prone to infection than another.
“I want to stress no zip code or neighborhood is inherently safer than another," Colfax said. "Every San Franciscan should continue to exercise precaution. This map should not make any one feel more relaxed or more fearful.”
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