San Francisco had some good news Monday for nurses working long hours under trying conditions during the coronavirus pandemic.

At a press conference, Mayor London Breed said the city has hired 82 nurses over the weekend to shore up hospital staffs.

She also announced San Francisco has received 1 million masks from the state “for our front line health responders, our paramedics, our firefighters, our police officers.”

Additionally Facebook donated 100,000 masks and 400,000 gloves, and the freight forwarding company Flexport chipped in 60,000 masks, 34,000 gloves, 2,000 surgical gowns and 50 thermometers.

“This is a problem all over the country,” Breed said. “There have been real challenges for hospitals everywhere to get access to PPE [Personal Protective Equipment]. It is the thing we need most, in order to protect not only the people who are at the hospitals taking care of patients but also to make sure our first responders have the support and equipment that they need.”

SFGATE has learned that some San Francisco General Hospital nurses have been working 16-hour shifts, going through up to 60 pairs of gloves per day and double-masking — wearing a surgical mask over an N95 mask to keep the latter from getting dirty, thereby extending its lifespan.

Brent Andrew, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital chief communications officer, said that while he hadn’t observed any instances of double-masking, he had heard about the practice. He said working extra hours is optional for nurses.

“No nurses are forced to work 16-hour shifts. They get overtime for it,” Andrew said.

However, Nato Green, who negotiates union contracts for nurses employed by the city of San Francisco, said in an email late Monday that San Francisco has maintained a policy of mandatory overtime for nurses and does not pay overtime for nurses who work beyond their shift voluntarily, even if their managers ask them to.



Andrew said ZSFG has only two “person under investigation” cases in the intensive care unit that potentially are COVID-19 infections, but they haven’t been confirmed. The hospital has 397 beds total.

Some COVID-19 cases do not require acute care and can be treated via self-isolating at home or another location, Andrew said.

Breed said there were 131 confirmed COVID-19 infections in San Francisco as of Monday afternoon.

Reducing the number of patients in the health care system is a top priority, Dr. Grant Colfax, the city’s director of public health, said during the press conference.

“Hospitals in the city are working together to prepare for the surge [of COVID-19 cases], Colfax said. “Our first task is to decompress the hospital and healthcare system as much as possible.

“We are restricting visitors to hospitals, long-term care facilities and residential facilities to protect the health of the most vulnerable populations. We have canceled or postponed elective surgery and routine medical appointments, moving services to television and video conferences.”

Colfax noted that the city has ordered enhanced cleaning of single-room-occupancy housing, expanded shelter hours, and increased meals served at shelters and navigation centers to improve the health and safety of “vulnerable populations."

Andrew said while Zuckerberg San Francisco General tracks the percentage of homeless patients admitted, he currently did not have that data.

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Mike Moffitt is an SFGATE Digital Reporter. Email: moffitt@sfgate.com. Twitter: @Mike_at_SFGate