COVID-19: San Francisco testing far below full capacity

SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco is testing residents for coronavirus, an important step in reopening the city. However, at this point the city is testing far below full capacity.

The novel coronavirus has forced a shutdown of most of the city of San Francisco. The health department said one of the key factors when considering whether or not to relax social distancing measure will be the ability to test on a mass scale. The department of health has been deploying testing centers throughout the city, and at this point has the capacity to conduct more than 4,000 tests per day.

But, the reality is that only about 700 or so tests are actually performed daily.

Until recently, the San Francisco Department of Public Health said at a Wednesday briefing, that was because of a lack of necessary supplies.

"Until last week, we were having real challenges with our supply of testing specimen materials to do the test," said Dr. Sara Philip from San Francisco's Department of Health. "That has improved, so now we are more able to ramp up testing."

The department briefed the Board of Supervisors this week on it's testing capacity versus how many tests are actually getting done.

Supervisor Matt Haney said part of the problem lies in the fact that the city is only testing those showing a specific list of symptoms. "Right now you have to have symptoms to be tested and a lot of people don't know what that means," said Supervisor Haney. "They can't access a doctor right now, so they're just being shut out even if they are in a category of people who should be getting tested."

The supervisor is also asking for the testing of the homeless and those in Single Room Occupancy (SRO) and communal living situations to be increased as well.

"Those folks need to be tested regularly because they've not been distant from other people," said Supervisor Haney.

The health deparment said it will be focusing on those in congregate settings, and is expecting a ramp-up in testing as it shifts its guidelines on who should be tested.

"Now we have recommended that people can access testing for a wide range of symptoms that are compatible with COVID-19,' said Dr. Philip. "They also should seek testing if they speak with one of our skilled investigators and are told they may have been in contact to a person with COVID-19."

Some supervisors are pointing to Los Angeles, which announced it will make free testing available to all Los Angeles residents even those with no symptoms. They'd like to see the same here in San Francisco.