The community health site at 24th and Capp streets, which has provided Covid-19 testing and eventually vaccines since the outbreak of the pandemic, will scale back services to one day a week, according to site leaders.
Starting today, the Unidos en Salud testing and vaccine site will be open Fridays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., according to Diane Jones, a Unidos leader and a former HIV nurse. During the height of the pandemic, it was open several days a week. Most recently, it was operating Fridays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The bilingual, low-barrier testing and vaccine site will likely ramp up again in the fall, when the risk for three infectious illnesses —covid, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) — is higher.
“We are hoping to do a big push for the Triple Vax campaign, if we’re able to obtain vaccines,” Jones said.
Meanwhile, the Mission and the rest of the country are bracing for a mini covid surge of their own. At present, there’s a rolling average of 47 cases per day in San Francisco since July 27, the most recent data available.
Wastewater data, a more reliable metric than testing data, since people have been testing less, shows San Francisco has seen an uptick this summer, part of a statewide spike.
The July 27 test-positivity rate was 9 percent, an increase from weeks prior; the seven-day average test positivity rate is 6.7 percent. From July 28 to July 30, the positivity rate dipped back down to between 3 and 6 percent, though the city cautions the data from those dates are “less reliable,” and may be updated.
Still, vaccinations and the likelihood of people spending time outdoors decreases risk of contracting severe disease. About 86 percent of San Francisco adults have received all the shots in the initial vaccine series (which doesn’t include bivalent boosters), according to city data.
People can still visit the Unidos En Salud community site to receive free vaccines, or they can go to other health sites and centers in the city.
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