San Francisco lifts state of emergency due to Covid

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San Francisco will end the Covid public health emergency on Feb. 28, along with the state of California, the Department of Public Health announced Thursday.

While this announcement will lift many of the mask orders that have been in place for the past three years, San Francisco is introducing new rules that will still require masks to be worn by staff in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and other healthcare facilities and prisons.

The general public is no longer required to wear masks in medical facilities or prisons, and neither staff nor the public will be required to wear a mask in homeless shelters unless required by operators.

The rollback is in line with increased efforts to deal with the pandemic emergency as vaccinations and treatments have been introduced. The city announced last month that it would permanently close a number of free testing sites due to declining demand. The Biden administration plans to lift the federal Covid emergency on May 11.

To date, the Covid pandemic has resulted in the death of 1,153 San Francisco residents and more than 193,000 confirmed infections.

“While the end of the declaration of public health emergency and
health orders do not mean the end of COVID-19, we are in a better position than we were three years ago and the effective tools we have now such as home tests, vaccines, boosters and treatments will continue to save lives. San Francisco health officer Dr. Susan Philip said in a statement.

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