While 69 percent of San Francisco residents have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19, and another 7 percent of the population has received their first dose of the vaccine, the Covid-19 case rate in San Francisco has spiked from an average of under 15 new cases per day in June to a rolling average of over 160 new cases per day over the past week, which is a six-month high.

And while there were only 10 hospital beds in San Francisco occupied by Covid-19 patients at the beginning of June, there are now 74, including 19 ICU beds, which is the most since the beginning of March.

UPDATE (8/2): The average number of daily new Covid-19 cases in San Francisco has jumped to over 200, which is over 50 percent higher than at the peak of the first wave in July of 2020, and there are now 89 hospital beds occupied by Covid-19 patients in San Francisco, including 23 people in an ICU. There were 111 hospitalizations at the peak of the first wave in 2020.

UPDATE (8/5): COVID Test Positive Rate Hits a 15-Month High in San Francisco

34 thoughts on “COVID Case Rate Spikes in San Francisco, Hospitalizations Jump”
  1. I wonder how many cases and hospitalizations were of people eligible for the vaccine but who were unvaccinated?

    1. Since the pandemic, it’s puzzling that we haven’t heard from the insurance business. One would think they might require vaccinations in order to renew policies. Why should they (us as premium payers) pay for something that is now largely preventable?

      1. I’m not a Lawyer as they say, but from what I hear liability is a huge issue here.

        There are a patchwork of state COVID liability shield laws, but from what I understand federally only the manufactures of the vaccines are strictly shielded from liability (and the FDA being protected by sovereign immunity). The vaccines seem extremely safe so far, but there is a difference between something being actually safe and being able to convince a jury to award damages to a sympathetic looking plaintiff. J&J just got hit with a $2B judgement for baby power.

        When such a large number of vaccine doses are administered you are bound to have some people experience health issues later even if those issue have no actual causal relationship to the vaccines. If the deep pockets of the vaccine manufacturers are sealed shut, I think it concerns employers and other businesses about being the only available target for any litigation.

        Some Obamacare laws about access to insurance and the fact that the vaccines are technically only under emergency approval also have some impact for insurers. And the potential ability to channel claims to workers comp may have impact for employers requiring vaccines to return to work. If there was clear federal immunity from liability for requiring vaccines, I think you’d see more vaccine requirements.

      2. The insurance companies have spoken. Since the vaccine is still experimental (not FDA approved), they will not cover adverse affects. At least, Aetna and most others wont. We still dont know long term affects and they are covering their butts.

    2. Bob Wachter at UCSF has said that nearly all hospitalized Covid patients are unvaccinated. The few vaccinated hospitalized patients are mostly immunocompromised.

  2. Yes, I wish they would tell us of the 74 Hospitalizations, how many were vaccinated? I suspect fewer than 5%.

  3. Latest 7 day average number (of of today, July 30) has jumped up to 176. We were at around 10-15 cases (7 days average) on June 20th, after July 4th weekend, cases started skyrocketing. Now we know that vaccinated people can spread the virus just as easily and quickly as unvaccinated people too. This isn’t ending anytime soon.

    1. COVID isn’t going away. Ever.

      But it’s already become something that’s only a serious problem for the unvaccinated.

      Hoping the vaccines can be approved soon for the under 12’s and then we can just go on with everything as normal.

  4. A fried of mine who lives in Maryland called me today and told me she has two friends who work for the US government and they were told to start planning for shutting the country down again by October at the latest.

    She said the government determined in the last day or two that Delta is as contagious as chickenpox…I would expect all offices to be closed nationwide within the next 30 days, and the migration out of cities to resume.

    1. Apparently new cases are dropping rapidly in Britain per a WaPo article. Hopefully a similar thing will happen here – the article notes the US is getting near the levels where the UK cases started falling.

      1. Vaccination in the UK was much more uniform than it is in the U.S. Perhaps some areas will start to fall. Others will sky rocket.

        1. Nah, the Delta infection curve was the same in India and the UK.

          ~50 day steep rise, followed by as nearly as steep a fall.

          The US is 25 days into its “Delta rise”, expect cases to peak the week of Aug 23 and then decline.

    2. “An internal C.D.C. document, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, said that Delta was as transmissible as chickenpox. Although the vaccines continue to provide strong protection against severe disease and death, fully vaccinated people can be infected by, and transmit, Delta, the agency noted. Given these facts, it was time to “acknowledge the war has changed,” the document said.”

  5. I got my initial doses in Jan+Feb, so I just voluntarily got the third booster shot. Israel is doing it already. Imminent to happen here. Covid isn’t going away — it was designed to evolve and infect. Adapt, learn and live.

    1. The 3rd shot isn’t even available, Pfizer just announced today they were starting testing on the latest strain.

  6. Fully vaccinated people can get and transmit the virus, but also, I can be president. The media jumps all over the worst case scenario bandwagon every chance they get, especially the Chronicle. And I notice they sell masks on many of their web pages. Free vaccines are available all over San Francisco. If people are so worried about getting Covid, maybe they are the ones that should wear masks, and possibly even 5, 2 over each ear, 2 “down below,” and 1 over their mouth. After all, “No one really knows!” Honestly, if someones in bad health, I don’t think the rest of us owe them a long life, especially if they take bad care of themselves in the first place. Nor am I convinced a 3rd shot is that good of an idea. I personally know no one that’s died from Covid. I know two people that had it. They had a slight fever for about a week. This whole thing is silly. I get the impression it’s clearly a case of the white collar middle class looking for an excuse to work from home, coupled with the perfect storm to get Trump out of office. I don’t want Covid to be a way of life, although I get the impression some of you have nothing better to do with your time. I suggest maybe a course in basic design, that way, for example, you could see that additionally, the masks are tacky. Can you say tacky? How about…specious nonsense?

    1. I ask Socketsite to take down this nonsense. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are dead, and millions around the world, and there’s no reason to include this poison on a real estate website.

      1. Agree wholeheartedly. Plenty of us know many people who have been infected; I know two who have died and two others who have life-changing permanent health impacts (one who has Covid-caused heart damage and will need heart surgery this year.) People spreading fake news should not be tolerated on Socketsite.

  7. PS, I think if you compare the death rate domestically to the entire population, it’s 1/1000 deaths from Covid. That’s 1 person out of 1000. If I visualize 1 out of 1000 it’s difficult for me to get too upset. Not to mention that in SF yearly, for example, twice as many people die from overdoses in the streets (as from Covid last year). Hence again, I’m nay to take Covid that seriously. Globally, I’m not as clear on the stats, admittedly, but I think it’s audacious of you, SFRealist, to not even be able to ponder the other side of the picture, not to mention the fact that much of the globe lives in abject poverty, and has for years. Nor does this website identify itself as purely one for Real Estate concerns.

    1. Well, first of all, your numbers are wrong. Covid has killed roughly 2 out of every 1000 Americans. Twice as many as you said, if that was what you were trying to say. Second, Covid was the third leading cause of death in the United States last year, after heart disease and cancer. In 2020, more than 10% of all deaths in America (about 375K out of 3.4M) were caused by Covid. Drug overdoses are also tragic. About 90,000 Americans died last year of drug overdoses, which is a lot less than died of Covid.

      While it’s true that deaths were low in San Francisco, that’s because San Francisco took strong action to fight Covid. Yes, people die on the streets of San Francisco and that is an absolute tragedy.

      Since we’re comparing numbers, you say that you don’t know anyone personally who died of Covid. I am happy for you. Do you know anyone personally who died on the streets of San Francisco from a drug overdose?

  8. Well indeed SFRealist I just checked, and now we have 1/500 deaths domestically from Covid: duly noted. I can think of at least one former pal that died from drug addiction.

    1. For context, in the last 16 months, at least 600,000 Americans have died of Covid. About 120,000 have died of drug overdoses in the same time. They are both problems, but it is factually wrong to paint drug overdoses as a bigger problem than Covid.

      Again, Socketsite should take down all of these comments. There is no reason for a real estate website to allow this sort of misinformation.

  9. Here are the headlines…

    Yahoo: CDC says fully vaccinated people spread the Delta variant and should wear masks: ‘This new science is worrisome’
    Washington Post: Vaccinated individuals infected with delta may be able to transmit the virus as easily as those who are unvaccinated. Vaccinated people infected with delta have measurable viral loads similar to those who are unvaccinated and infected with the variant.
    NIH: Study in Israel: Pfizer Vaccine only 39% Effective at Preventing Infection with Delta Variant
    This is a bummer, but it looks like the vaccines are not as effective as we hoped. Symptoms seem to be lessened when vaccinated, but nobody really knows how this plays out.

    How does this effect Real Estate? Well… Twitter just closed their office in SF. The tech companies are pausing bringing their people back, so both office and residential rents are impacted greatly.

    1. That’s fair. Covid does affect real estate. What I should have said was that a real estate site does not need to host flagrant disinformation which ends up costing lives. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are unnecessarily dead because of these sorts of lies.

  10. While 1 out of 500 Americans died from Covid last year, this article clearly states in SF the overdose deaths last year were double the Covid deaths, so no I’m not factually wrong, and if anything, I daresay a “real estate” website might want to silence various posts by SFRealist, because he/she paints that profession as elitist, specious, and condescending: rather entirely unprofessional. Not to mention, here in SF, it seems we’re all about politics and voice, unless someone says something unpopular.

    1. I agree that there were more deaths by overdose than by Covid in San Francisco, but that’s because San Francisco took early decisive action against Covid and people have been good about getting their vaccines. That is to our credit. If the rest of America had been as good as San Francisco was, then hundreds of thousands of Americans would still be alive.

      You’re the one who said ‘I get the impression it’s clearly a case of the white collar middle class looking for an excuse to work from home, coupled with the perfect storm to get Trump out of office.’ That is obviously untrue. In fact, Covid hits minorities and the poor much worse than it hits the white middle class. They are the real victims. Mocking mask use, which you do, is how we got here. Covid is not silly at all.

      1. Looks like my last response was unfortunately deleted, so I’m finished here. SFRealist: You’re a perfect example off why I’m loosing faith in the Democrats.

        1. Nothing I’ve said has anything to do with a political party. The virus doesn’t care what political party your voted for. Neither does the vaccine.

          Yes, I complimented San Francisco’s response. But that’s because it was good, not because it’s run by Democrats. I’m happy to compliment Republicans who recognize the science. For example, Mitch McConnell has been consistently excellent on fighting Covid. Mitch McConnell is saving lives. It has nothing to do with party.

  11. UPDATE: The average number of daily new Covid-19 cases in San Francisco has jumped to over 200, which is over 50 percent higher than at the peak of the first wave in July of 2020, and there are now 89 hospital beds occupied by Covid-19 patients in San Francisco, including 23 people in an ICU. There were 111 hospitalizations at the peak of the first wave in 2020.

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