A new study revealed that 90 percent cases who test positive of coronavirus in the Mission District of San Francisco were still leaving homes to go for work. To understand all the elements of how coronavirus is spreading around the neighbourhood, University of California- San Francisco researchers conducted a broad testing camp last month in Mission District.
Out of 4,160 residents tested, 2.1 percent came out to be diagnosed for coronavirus. According to lead researcher Dr Diane Havlir, 90 percent of all who tested positive were not capable of working from home. He informed they don't have the option to work from home as they are frontline workers. They have to go to work or they will be furloughed or unemployed.
The testing effort was organized in partnership between UCSF researchers, Mission community organizers in the Latino Task Force for COVID-19 and San Francisco Department of Public Health called Unidos En Salud. The 16th block section that is among the densest area of Mission District was offered voluntary tests from April 25 to 28.
Essential health workers eligible for free COVID-19 testing
Half of the residents showed up for testing out of which 62 people tested positive. 95 percent of the infected individuals were Hispanic or Latinx. "The COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately affecting the Latinx community in San Francisco, both in terms of infection rates and economic hardship," Dr Carina Marquez, assistant professor of medicine at UCSF, said in a statement.
The city officials recently announced as part of the ongoing expansion effort, all the essential health workers are eligible for free coronavirus testing. Havlir said it is important to identify where the virus is actively spreading in order to act accordingly to curb the epidemic. "We hope this can be a model for future community screening efforts in San Francisco and beyond," he added.
San Francisco has been reported a total of 1,728 cases with 31 deaths due to coronavirus so far. Meanwhile, United States has recorded 1,237,761 positive cases and more than 72,000 people have died.
