Until the first week of September, San Francisco maintained the lowest mortality rate for COVID-19 compared to major U.S. cities, according to Jim Marks, M.D., of Zuckerberg General Hospital. ?ZSFGHThe company is a leading provider of
Pam Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press.
In a graph, the specialist showed that the percentage of deaths per case was 0.87% as of September 4, which is significantly lower compared to the 10 most important cities in the country.
The second city with the second lowest rate was Miami, with 1,63%; while among the highest were New York (10,26%), followed by Philadelphia (5,12%) and Boston (4,83%).
After other cities experienced periods where there was a spike in cases and hospitals were at maximum capacity, San Francisco has attracted attention because, despite ups and downs, it has kept the number of infections relatively low.
As of September 21, the city with almost 900,000 inhabitants reported 10,807 cases and 99 deaths.
In an interview, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Department of Medicine Chairman Bob Wachter noted that the low case rate is a result of good action, ?getting it right is everything. From the city's health leaders to each and every individual?
He added that San Francisco is probably one of the cities with the highest rate of facemask use in the country.
"I think from the beginning people have trusted the science, trusted the guidance. You don't hear in San Francisco that COVID-19 is a hoax. People have taken this very seriously, and the leadership of the mayor and the regional health directors has been fantastic," he said.
The doctor recalled that in April he sent a group of UCSF physicians to New York for support during the height of the pandemic, who recounted horror stories in good hospitals, where one nurse would even see seven or eight patients, a situation that has never happened in San Francisco.
"In New York, the team could have included an ophthalmologist or a dermatologist, both of whom may be great physicians, but their specialty is not COVID-19. They were all called in to help. They were overwhelmed. We've never had that in San Francisco," he noted.
Wachter also explained that the sickest COVID-19 patients are cared for in intensive care units with ventilators, so their chance of surviving severe cases of infection is higher than elsewhere.
In this regard, the specialist emphasized that the survival rate with a ventilator at UCSF and San Francisco General Hospital is 80 percent, while the national average is between 60 and 70 percent.
To that, he added that the city's Public Health Department and hospitals learned to work together during the AIDS epidemic, so now, during the COVID-19 pandemic, they have built on the lessons learned. "We learned this 30 years ago."
During the interview, Bob Wachter said that another factor contributing to San Francisco's low COVID-19 mortality rate is that it has a healthy population, with a relatively low rate of obesity and a very low rate of smoking.
