coronavirus pandemic

SF Leaders Renew Push for Unvaccinated Residents to Get Their COVID-19 Shot

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While President Joe Biden is rolling out plans to start offering boosters shots against COVID-19, San Francisco is renewing the push to get shots to those who are still unvaccinated.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Director of health and leaders from the African American community came together Thursday to highlight a plan to make it even easier to get to the vaccine.

San Francisco’s vaccination rates are high but not in every community. This effort is meant to bring vaccines to those who have yet to roll up their sleeves.

Vincent Webster got his shot Thursday with Mayor Breed by his side. He decided after hesitating, it was finally time to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.

“I work a lot and I was somewhat reluctant because of other issues in the past i got to keep my crew safe so in order to do I got to be safe,” he said.

Webster came to the Fillmore Mini Park for the mobile vaccine program.

“I understand the concerns that a lot of people have around vaccinations specifically in the African American community,” Breed said.

Breed and leaders talked about historical concerns and hesitancy.

In San Francisco, almost 80% of those eligible are vaccinated.

“We still have work to do. We still have work to do, particularly among African Americans. Where our rate of vaccination is 64%,” said Dr. Grant Colfax, San Francisco’s Director of Health

To reach those pockets the city created mobile teams and a ‘vax to you program’ - which will bring the vaccine to you.

San Francisco resident Cassie Cook, who is grieving the loss of her son also spoke today - hoping to convince the hesitant.

“I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye, i begged him to be vaccinated he wouldn’t do it,” she said.

San Francisco still has a high number of cases compared to June. But they are seeing some promising signs recently.

“The good news is the number of cases per day has dropped somewhat. We are starting to see a leveling off in both cases and in our hospitalization. This is all being driven by delta. We don’t know yet if these numbers could go back up again,” Colfax said

On Friday, new proof of vaccination requirements go into effect for thousands of San Francisco’s businesses.

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