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Author: Alfredo Casuso

SAN FRANCISCO TO MOVE FORWARD WITH REOPENING MORE BUSINESSES AND ACTIVITIES ON SEPTEMBER 30

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications, mayorspressoffice@sfgov.org  

*** PRESS RELEASE ***

SAN FRANCISCO TO MOVE FORWARD WITH REOPENING MORE BUSINESSES AND ACTIVITIES ON SEPTEMBER 30

Now that San Francisco is assigned to the State’s Orange tier, the City will move forward on reopening indoor restaurants and places of worship, and other activities including plans for outdoor family entertainment, playgrounds and indoor movie theaters

San Francisco, CA — Mayor London N. Breed, Director of Health Dr. Grant Colfax, and Assessor-Recorder Carmen Chu, co-Chair of the City’s Economic Recovery Task Force, today announced San Francisco will move forward with indoor dining and places of worship at 25% capacity up to 100 people starting on Wednesday, September 30. In addition, San Francisco will expand the capacity of outdoor places of worship, outdoor political demonstrations, and indoor malls, and will reopen additional family entertainment, hotel fitness centers, and more. These next steps come as the State assigned San Francisco to Orange on its tiered reopening system, based on San Francisco’s COVID-19 infection and case rate.

San Francisco has also set a timeline for opening indoor movie theaters and outdoor playgrounds. Indoor movie theaters are slated to reopen at a limited capacity and with modifications on Wednesday, October 7, and public outdoor playgrounds are planned to open in mid-October, now that State restrictions have eased.

“We know this continues to be a challenging time with people struggling economically and emotionally. However, thanks to San Francisco’s commitment to following public health guidance, we are seeing improvements in our numbers, which means we can continue to move forward with reopening,” said Mayor Breed. “Reopening indoor restaurants and houses of worship with limited capacity, and creating opportunities for families to safely enjoy outdoor entertainment are a good step on our road to recovery. We are committed to following the data and continuing reopening once our local health indicators demonstrate it is safe to do so. That said, the last thing we want to see is a spike in cases and a need to roll back all the progress we’ve made, so we all need to do our part. Please continue to follow the public health guidelines and participate in these activities responsibly so we can continue to move forward together.”

“This latest round of activities and re-openings is a result of the dedication and commitment of our residents and businesses. Our actions to limit the spread of the virus continue to pay off,” said Dr. Grant Colfax. “Since we came off the state watch list Sept. 1, we have kept a steady and gradual pace of reopening — from after school programs and in-classroom learning to indoor personal services and restaurants. We want this to continue and we do not want any setbacks, so we will keep reminding the public to be diligent and wear a mask, physically distance and wash your hands.”

“Growing up I spent many weekends bussing and waiting on tables at our family restaurant. Today, I’m especially excited to see restaurants reopen indoor to create a lifeline during the colder fall and winter months,” said Assessor Carmen Chu, Co-chair of the Economic Recovery Task Force. “Together our actions got us to ‘orange’ so let’s keep it going. Let’s keep taking precautions to keep our workers and families safe.”

“San Francisco’s world class restaurants create vibrant spaces for culture and community to thrive and remain absolutely vital to our economic recovery. They draw visitors from across the Bay and the globe, employ tens of thousands of diverse San Franciscans and generate billions in taxable sales,” said Joaquín Torres, Director of Economic and Workforce Development. “Even as the crisis has impacted their industry, they’ve been persistently innovative to serve all of us, supporting their workers and those most vulnerable in our communities. Doing business indoors couldn’t come at a better time as we approach the colder months, but we must do so safely. Keep your mask on when you are talking, especially to restaurant staff. This will allow us to stay safe and do what we do better than any other City, eat out often.” 

Tomorrow, the San Francisco Department of Public Health will issue final health and safety guidelines for indoor dining, places of worship, and other activities to ensure the safest reopening possible. On Thursday, September 24, the Department of Public Health provided restaurants and places of worship with preliminary guidance to safely reopen with limited capacity and other modifications in place.

The reopening of businesses and activities will increase travel and interaction throughout the city, which means increasing community spread of the virus and an increase in cases. Public health officials will regularly assess the Key Public Health Indicators, particularly new positive case counts and hospitalizations to ensure San Francisco has the necessary resources available for those who contract COVID-19.

While San Francisco recognizes the State’s thresholds, the City will continue on a reopening path based on its local health indicators and unique challenges and successes of our local reopening. San Francisco’s reopening plan is available online at SF.gov/reopening. Reopening is dependent upon San Francisco’s Health indicators remaining stable or improving, and the plan is subject to change. Although additional indoor activities are being allowed, it is important to remember that outdoor options remain safer. Seniors and those with COVID-19 risk factors should avoid indoor crowds. All San Franciscans must do their part to limit the spread of COVID-19, including face masking, social distancing, and handwashing.

Indoor Dining

Starting on Wednesday, September 30, restaurants and bars serving meals can reopen for indoor dining at 25% capacity, up to 100 people. Safety requirements for indoor dining are similar to the existing guidelines for outdoor dining. Face coverings must be worn by personnel and patrons at all times except when the patron is eating or drinking. That includes customers wearing a face covering when ordering, waiting for their order to arrive, or anytime staff is at their table. Restaurants are encouraged to use reservations to help ensure compliance with capacity limits. Under the new health guidance, restaurants must conduct a health check of patrons before they are seated. The health check requirement applies to both indoor and outdoor dining. Additional requirements and guidelines are available online here.

Places of Worship

Starting on Wednesday, September 30, places of worship can open indoors at 25% capacity, up to 100 people. Outdoor worship services will continue, now with up to 200 people, as long as there is sufficient space to allow for social distancing. Singing or chanting is not allowed indoors since choirs and singing indoors is a known source of COVID-19 spread. The place of worship must conduct a health check of patrons before they enter the facility. Face coverings are required at all times except for brief removal to consume food or drink if it is essential to a ritual or ceremony. Additional requirements and guidelines are available online here.

Additional Activities Resuming September 30th

In addition to indoor dining and places of worship, San Francisco is moving forward on reopening or expanding the following activities on September 30th:

  • Outdoor political demonstrations may continue, now with up to 200 people, as long as there is sufficient space to allow for social distancing and everyone wears a face covering.
  • Indoor classes for higher education and vocational programs that require specialized equipment that cannot move outside are allowed with modifications and capacity limits in place.
  • Some additional family entertainment, including outdoor children’s carousels, miniature trains, and Ferris wheels, like the Observation Wheel in Golden Gate Park, with specified safety precautions.  
    • The Observation Wheel is currently under construction and is expected to open by the end of October.
  • Fitness centers located within hotels and lodging establishments up to 10% capacity with staff monitoring.
  • Indoor shopping centers and malls with 50% capacity, upon approval of an updated health and safety plan.
    • Indoor food courts may reopen following guidelines for indoor dining.

GOAL: early October – Indoor Movie Theaters and Outdoor Playgrounds

  • The Department of Public Health plans to issue directives and guidance to allow indoor movie theaters to open on October 7, if San Francisco remains assigned to the Orange tier. At that time, movie theaters can reopen with 25% capacity up to 100 people, and with no concessions sold, or outside food or drink consumed.
  • Now that the State has changed its guidance to allow outdoor children’s playgrounds operated by government agencies to operate, and if San Francisco remains assigned to the Orange tier, the Department of Public Health will issue a directive and guidance to allow outdoor playgrounds to reopen. San Francisco anticipates this change will occur by October 14.

“We are thrilled to welcome families back to our playgrounds, centers of neighborhood joy and connection that have been sorely missed, particularly in our low income and high density neighborhoods,” said San Francisco Recreation and Park Department General Manager Phil Ginsburg. “Opening the Observation Wheel for Golden Gate Park’s 150th anniversary is a tribute to the resilience of San Franciscans, who have found healing and happiness in our parks throughout our history. The Wheel is a symbol of hope and celebration that connects our past with our future.”

Reopening of Schools – Ongoing

As state and local COVID-19 indicators permit, San Francisco schools may now resume in-person learning with approved safety plans in place. San Francisco’s approach to the reopening process for San Francisco TK-12 schools (transitional kindergarten through 12th grade) prioritizes the reopening of younger grades for in-person learning this fall. As many as 106 private, parochial or charters schools have requested applications for in-person learning this fall. Almost 60 schools have submitted applications and 20 schools have been approved for re-opening. The applications are being reviewed on a rolling basis. Elementary schools are reopening first, followed by middle schools, and then high schools.

All San Francisco schools must meet minimum standards required by the state and DPH before resuming in-person learning. This includes providing detailed plans on how they will ensure adequate testing and contact tracing for their staff and students. Schools will work with DPH to meet all the requirements for the safest re-opening. The school re-opening dashboard identifies the schools that have begun this process by sending an initial letter of interest to DPH to reopen, and shows where each school is in the approval process, including completion of an on-site assessment.

PANDEMIC-THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S DEPRAVED INDIFFERENCE

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PANDEMIC-THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S
DEPRAVED INDIFFERENCE

By John Murphy

What does a governor of California at the height of the Great Depression have in common with President Donald J. Trump in engendering the Covid-19 Pandemic just prior to the most consequential election in modern American history?

California Governor James “Sunny Jim” Rolph, its Chief Constitutional Officer in 1933, not only refused to call out the National Guard to prevent the lynching of two men in what is now known as Silicon Valley, but promised to pardon anyone convicted of carrying out one of the most notoriously self-deluded manifestations of citizen justice in the United States.

Donald J. Trump, America’s Chief Constitutional Officer, consciously and cynically concealed his informed knowledge of the most deadly virus since 1918 from the American public, refused to employ his authority to mount a comprehensively uniform national campaign to prevent the virus from spreading, and now hideously exploits the avoidable deaths of 200,000 Americans to scare voters away from the polls while spewing propaganda echoed by both the Russians and the Chinese about the integrity of voting by mail.

American citizens regularly look toward the leaders of their respective states and the nation for both moral and civic judgment and inspiration. Governor Rolph’s pardon promise gilding his refusal to call out the National Guard to prevent the lynching of two men accused of kidnapping and murder, resulted in a press-estimated five to ten thousand men, women, and children crowded into a city park to carry out a Sabbath lynching four days before Thanksgiving in 1933.

The following morning, Governor Rolph praised the otherwise upstanding God-fearing citizens who he claimed just momentarily lost their minds, then reaffirmed his pardon pledge. Citizens who participated in the lynching doggedly refused to talk about it the rest of their lives.

President Trump just awarded himself an A-plus for his Covid-19 response he claims kept the Covid-19 casualties to only 200,000 when it could have been in the millions. It doesn’t matter the size of the match, spark, or ember that ignites a wildfire, it is solely measured by the number of human lives lost, homes and businesses destroyed, and acres burned. President Trump, like his role model eighty-seven years ago, has no capacity to understand or appreciate what the loss of a loved one means to each American, and only offers risible respect for the credulous who accept his toxic leadership as gospel because he is President of the United States.

President Trump’s minions—their lush political paranoia nourished by his chronic inversion of facts—consciously and deliberately distorted and manipulated scientific judgment inextricably tied to the gruesomely heartbreaking Covid-19 death toll, and are complicit with President Trump in causing the deaths of our 200,000 fellow Americans. In any other circumstance, such behavior would constitute depraved indifference that arguably would be used as material evidence for a manslaughter indictment.

Just like once respected Republicans rendered mute in the face of human, economic, and political devastation by the dark money generated by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling—granting corporations the same free speech rights as individuals while guaranteeing anonymity, the inquiry into the lynching overseen by subsequent Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, then Alameda County District Attorney, Earl Warren, excluded both Governor Rolph and the allegedly anonymous members of the local vigilance committee comprised of well-known civic and business leaders, falsely attributing the lynching to otherwise God-fearing citizens who forgiveably lost their minds for a moment in the face of the evil contempt for human life by the accused kidnappers and murderers and what they were led to believe was a legal system benefiting criminals rather than victims.

President Trump, obdurately dismissing the 200,000 Covid-19 American deaths, gleefully conducts serial political sideshows emblazoned in history by the shameless merchandising of treasured symbols of American democracy, while contemptuously flouting scientific fact by shaming mask-wearing and social distancing that encourages increasingly deadly exposure to the virus by his true believers and all those with whom they subsequently come into contact.

Most concerning of all is President Trump’s and his appointees’ promotion and endorsement of armed citizen retaliation against people exercising free speech rights—free speech which categorically does not include violence, arson, or looting—and the ominous specter of the election of Joe Biden resulting from the rigging of voting. Like the lynching endorsed and pardoned by Governor Rolph, the potential for horrific and tragically misplaced political violence is ominously extant.

It is the enemy defined by human imagination that most often results in the most lethal and perpetually damaging consequences. President Trump, by exploiting, rather than condemning, the outlandish and factually baseless conspiracy theories about the virus and his political opposition, provides the emotional gunpowder to wreak havoc on the long-proven, and highly regarded American electoral process solely for the narcissistic purposes of being re-elected.

American democracy survived and became the symbol and reality of freedom in the world because of its capacity to accommodate the most questionable manifestations of free speech while retaining the composure to eventually come to its senses. It is now time for our weathered, but resilient sense of justice to again exercise its enduring power and prevail over the worst presidency since the founding of this nation.

Murphy,  a founder of the University of Phoenix authored an insider account of its formation and what transpired at the nation’s first accredited for-profit university after he resigned in 1997: “Mission Forsaken: The University of Phoenix Affair with Wall Street.”Subsequently, he wrote and produced the award-winning feature film, Valley of the Heart’s Delight based on the Republican politics of the 1933 San Jose lynching starring Pete Postlethwaite, Bruce McGill, and Gabriel Mann.

BuildOUT California Opposes President Trump Executive Order

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BuildOUT California Opposes President Trump Executive Order

On September 22, 2020, our Nation took a giant step backward. Claiming that “Americans should be taught to take pride in our Great Country, and if you don’t, there’s nothing in it for you,” the President of the United States issued an Executive Order to ban training on implicit bias and most aspects of diversity for any company receiving federal grants or contracts. With one stroke of his executive pen, the President is attempting to erase decades of hard-won freedoms. In order to “form a more perfect union” for our future, we must engage in a critical assessment of the past. 

This Executive Order requires that any company seeking to benefit from a government contract must pretend that systemic bias does not exist. To do so requires one to ignore America’s history — of taking land from native peoples, enslaving African Americans, subjecting women to unequal treatment, permitting hate crimes against members of the LGBTQ community, enacting the Chinese Exclusion Act, forcing the internment of Japanese Americans, denying Jews entry to the US during WWII, and the daily indignities suffered by anyone who is not straight, white, privileged and male.

To ignore the cruel and unjust periods of American history denies us the opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of those who fought against those injustices and triumphed. How can Americans celebrate the accomplishments of Thurgood Marshall, Harvey Milk, Susan B. Anthony, Cesar Chavez, Jackie Robinson, Megan Rapinoe, or Serena Williams without understanding the historical and systemic injustices they overcame? It is only by studying our past – the good and the bad – that we can identify our own biases and work together to create an equal and just society.

BuildOUT California calls upon all elected officials to take immediate and swift action to right the wrongs inflicted by this Executive Order. We urge all business owners to embrace diversity. And we ask all Americans to stand with us as we say: “Mr. President, we dissent.”      

— BuildOUT California

BuildOUT California is the world’s first LGBT industry association dedicated to the sustainable growth of LGBT-owned and certified businesses, and our allies, in the fields of architecture, engineering, construction services, real estate development and related industries.

www.buildoutcalifornia.org

Manny’s Opens Nation’s First Outdoor Socially-Distant “Victory Booths”

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Media contact: David Perry & Associates, Inc. (415) 676-7007 / news@davidperry.com

Manny’s Opens Nation’s First Outdoor Socially-Distant “Victory Booths” to Phone Bank / Text / Write Letters to Spur Voter Turnout and Defeat Donald Trump

www.welcometomannys.com

tinyurl.com/victoryboothshifts

21 September 2020 – San Francisco, CA:  In the final days before 2020 election Manny’s at 3092 16th  Street at Valencia (www.welcometomannys.com)has stepped up its work to defeat Donald Trump this November by building the Victory Booths.  Manny’s has built the country’s first outdoor socially distanced set of booths where community members have already begun to come to phone bank, text bank, and write letters to swing state voters.

“It’s crucial in these final weeks that everyone in California spend as much time talking to voters in swing states as possible,” said Manny Yekutiel, 31, who founded and runs the eponymous community engagement space and café dubbed “the New Hampshire of California” (KCBS Radio) for its hosting of myriad political events including hosting 17 Democratic presidential candidates. “That’s what these first-in -the nation victory booths are here for.”

Over the next 7 weeks (or 50 days), Manny’s “Victory Booths” will be sending over 10,000 letters to swing state voters in Florida, making thousands of calls and sending tens of thousands of text messages with one goal in mind: elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and defeat Donald Trump. The link to sign up for a shift is tinyurl.com/victoryboothshifts

“Manny’s was created to be a space for political discourse, activism and advocacy for social justice,” says Yekutiel, who expects to announce some “significant VIP attendance” later this week for the effort. “Until we can once again gather for political action inside Manny’s we’re inviting people to gather outside, socially distant but politically active, at 16th and Valencia.”

Since opening its doors on Election Night 2018, Manny’s has become an epicenter of community involvement, dialogue and civic engagement having served over 50,000 people, staged over 500 events, donated space to more than 150 area nonprofits and charities, and hosted 17 presidential candidates in his first year alone. Also, in addition to receiving much media and public attention, Manny’s was recognized for his above-and-beyond achievements by the California State Senate as “Small Business of the Year.” 

Manny’s is a people powered, community focused meeting and learning place in the heart of San Francisco that combines a restaurant, political bookshop, and civic events space. Manny’s goal: to create a central and affordable place to become a better informed and more involved citizen. Manny’s offers its events space to nonprofits, activists and civic organizations to spread their message and do their work as well as hosting its own civic and arts related programming. Manny’s kitchen is run by the non-profit, Farming Hope, which hires formerly homeless and formerly incarcerated individuals and trains them in the food skills needed to work in the restaurant industry.

MAYOR LONDON BREED ANNOUNCES TIMELINE AND FRAMEWORK FOR REOPENING INDOOR DINING IN SAN FRANCISCO

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Friday, September 18, 2020

Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications, mayorspressoffice@sfgov.org  

*** PRESS RELEASE ***

MAYOR LONDON BREED ANNOUNCES TIMELINE AND FRAMEWORK FOR REOPENING INDOOR DINING IN SAN FRANCISCO

San Francisco is working with the local restaurant industry to develop a standardized health and safety plan and protocols to help restaurants prepare for reopening

San Francisco, CA — Mayor London N. Breed, Dr. Grant Colfax, Director of Health, and Assessor-Recorder Carmen Chu, co-Chair of the City’s Economic Recovery Task Force, today announced San Francisco’s plan for reopening indoor dining. San Francisco will move forward with indoor dining at 25% capacity, up to 100 people, once classified as “orange” on the State’s tiered system, which will occur no sooner than the end of the month. The San Francisco Department of Public Health is developing health and safety guidelines in coordination with the local restaurant industry in order to prepare restaurants for the safest reopening possible.

“Restaurants have been hit hard by COVID-19. Many have adapted with takeout and outdoor dining, but they’ve still been barely hanging on and, sadly, some have closed for good,” said Mayor Breed. “We are laying out the next steps to make sure restaurants are ready to reopen as safely as possible. I want to thank the Golden Gate Restaurant Association for working with us to get to this point. Helping our restaurant industry survive this pandemic is a key part of our longer-term economic recovery.”

San Francisco is currently assigned to the State’s “red” tier, which provides the City the discretion to move forward with reopening some activities and services, including indoor salons and gyms. While San Francisco recognizes the State’s thresholds, the City will continue on a reopening path based on its local health indicators and unique challenges and successes of our local reopening. Based on the State’s tiered system, the earliest that San Francisco will move to the less restrictive “orange” tier is at the end of September. However, if local COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations do not remain stable, San Francisco may not meet the criteria of the orange tier and will remain in the red tier.

“We appreciate our vibrant restaurant community’s sacrifice throughout this pandemic, and we want to thank them for their cooperation and patience that has brought us to this point,” said Dr. Colfax. “While health officials continue to monitor the virus, we also need San Franciscans to continue practicing the health and safety precautions needed for us to reopen our city gradually.”

The City is working with the Golden Gate Restaurant Association to develop a self-certification process for reopening indoor dining in San Francisco. This process will provide restaurants the information and tools they need to prepare to safely reopen indoor dining with limited capacity and other modifications in place. Before restaurants can reopen, they will need to complete a self-certification documenting their ability to comply with minimum standards for operating indoor dining in San Francisco.

“Our measured approach to reopening is grounded in science and facts, and science clearly tells us that indoor activities come with additional risk,” said Dr. Tomás Aragón. “We must work with the restaurants and business owners to implement strong safety protocols that help mitigate this additional risk and protect the safety of our employees, customers, and the community.”

“I grew up waiting tables at my parent’s family restaurant. Knowing first-hand what it takes to keep a business going, it’s been my priority to find pathways for businesses to reopen and stay in San Francisco,” said Assessor Carmen Chu, Co-Chair of the Economic Recovery Task Force. “The next step will be to work in the coming week with public health and restaurants to ensure we have clear guidelines for how we can more safely operate indoors for workers and customers.”

“Today’s announcement brings hope to our San Francisco restaurants and the thousands of workers who need these jobs,” said Laurie Thomas, Executive Director, Golden Gate Restaurant Association. “The past six months have caused so much pain and financial hardship for many. Having a clear and safe path to move forward with indoor dining, even at a limited capacity, will mean restaurants have the chance to reopen and/or see a way to not have to close. We thank the Mayor and her staff, and Dr. Aragón and Dr. Colfax for working with us to make this possible.”

“For restaurants on Larkin Street in Little Saigon, the news that we may be able to begin reopening indoors again in weeks rather than months is really hopeful,” said Rene Colorado, Executive Director of the Tenderloin Merchants Association. “Outdoor dining has been important but it’s not enough alone, especially as we approach the wetter, colder months. Today’s news offers some hope there really may be a light at the end of the tunnel.”

“We’re very happy Mayor Breed is being proactive in helping small businesses by listening to them and taking action,” said Small Business Commissioner William Ortiz-Cartagena.  “Restaurants are telling us what they need and reopening indoors is the next step to saving these businesses and all the jobs they support. We commend the Mayor and appreciate her for standing with us and all our small businesses in these challenging times.”

“It’s great to hear that we will be allowed to have indoor dining again, especially after having to close our busting dining room on Larkin Street in Little Saigon for six months,” said Thao Pham, owner of Turtle Tower Restaurant. “We are very excited to welcome guests back into our restaurant and its helpful to have more notice this time, so we can begin planning how best to do so responsibly and safely.”

Reopening Next Week 

In-classroom learning with limited capacity for TK-6th grade will begin to resume September 21st for schools that have submitted a safety plan and have received approval. Indoor museums and galleries may submit health and safety plans this week and will be able to open as early as Monday, September 21st. Additionally, San Francisco continues to evaluate ways to bring other activities, including indoor movies, bars, nightlife, and offices back safely.

Prior Reopening

Earlier this week, San Francisco’s reopening continued with additional outdoor and indoor activities. The businesses and services that resumed indoors with limited capacity include hair salons, barber shops, massage services, nail salons, gyms and fitness centers. Only those services where face coverings can be worn at all times by everyone involved will reopen at this time. Hotels, outdoor family entertainment centers, drive-in entertainment such as outdoor movies, and outdoor tour buses and boats also reopened on Monday under rules for outdoor gatherings. 

The reopening of businesses and activities will increase travel and interaction throughout the city, which means increasing community spread of the virus and an increase in cases. Public health officials will regularly assess the Key Public Health Indicators, particularly new positive case counts and hospitalizations to ensure San Francisco has the necessary resources available for those that are infected.

San Francisco’s reopening plan is available online at SF.gov/reopening. Reopening is dependent upon San Francisco’s Health indicators remaining stable or improving, and the plan is subject to change. All San Franciscans must do their part to limit the spread of COVID-19, including face masking, social distancing and handwashing.

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