Health Department reports improved COVID trends and targeted MPOX vaccine outreach ahead of fair season

At the Sept. 20 Health Commission meeting, San Francisco Department of Public Health Director Grant Colfax reported declining COVID-19 metrics, continued MPOX vaccination outreach and newly released HIV epidemiology figures.

Colfax said San Francisco's COVID-19 case rate had fallen to about 5 cases per 100,000 residents in the most recent data cited and hospitalizations were substantially lower than recent peaks, with 56 patients in hospital and nine in intensive care as of Sept. 15. "We are moving in the right direction," Colfax said, while noting case counts from home testing are not fully captured in official data.

On HIV epidemiology, Colfax said 160 new HIV diagnoses were reported in San Francisco in 2021, a 16% increase from 2020 but still below the 173 reported in 2019; he cautioned that increased testing as pandemic disruptions eased could affect year-to-year comparisons.

Colfax and Dr. Philip detailed MPOX (monkeypox) outreach plans tied to two major public events. The city said it had secured an allocation of about 10,000 additional vaccine doses to support targeted outreach and planned pop-up vaccination sites and clinic teams at the Folsom Street Fair and Castro Street Fair. "We are happy to vaccinate people coming from outside San Francisco to these events as well," Dr. Philip said.

Colfax also noted the recent reopening of the renovated Castro Mission Health Center and described ongoing environmental health and food-safety outreach, including a bilingual presentation for local small businesses.

Commissioners asked for more granular MPOX and HIV data to assess trends and outreach effectiveness; Colfax and staff said they would follow up with additional slides and data for subsequent meetings.