LATEST, April 15, 8 p.m. Seven new deaths from the novel coronavirus were reported in San Mateo County on Wednesday night.

This is the first time the county has reported new deaths since last Tuesday, when eight deaths were reported. There are now 28 total deaths in San Mateo County so far.

April 15, 7 p.m. The number of Bay Area COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization and intensive care is down from last week.

The number of total hospitalizations for confirmed and suspected coronavirus patients has been flat over the past three days, with totals of 751 on Sunday, 750 on Monday and 758 on Tuesday. The number of patients in intensive care units went from 234 Sunday to 238 Monday before falling to 225 Tuesday.

Last week's Sunday-Tuesday average for hospitalizations was 789, and the average for intensive care was 282.

April 15, 5:15 p.m. There are now 13 deaths from COVID-19 complications at Gateway Care & Rehabilitation Center, the Hayward nursing home where over 65 residents and staff members have been infected.

County officials announced two new deaths Wednesday, and the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office announced it has launched a criminal investigation into the outbreak.

Earlier in the week, civil rights attorney John Burris, who represents the family of one of the victims, called for a formal investigation into whether the nursing home's sick policy led to symptomatic staff members continuing to work.

"We want to know whether this facility operated below the acceptable standard of care, and that they did what they were supposed to do to ensure that their resident and or their employees would not contract the coronavirus," Burris said.

The district attorney's office stated the probe began before Burris made the demand.

April 15, 3:45 p.m. President Donald Trump took aim at Nancy Pelosi in a White House press conference Wednesday, saying that while he was closing the border to China, House Speaker Pelosi “was trying to have in San Francisco parties in Chinatown because she thought it would be great.”

He then claimed, “She was trying to show [the coronavirus] doesn’t exist.”

Trump was referring to a Feb. 24 visit Pelosi paid to Chinatown restaurants; it was three weeks before the San Francisco Mayor London Breed issued a citywide shelter in place, and about two weeks before the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global pandemic. Pelosi did not claim the coronavirus did not exist.

“Come to Chinatown,” Pelosi said at the time. “Precautions have been taken by our city, we know that there's concern about tourism, traveling all throughout the world, but we think it's very safe to be in Chinatown and hope that others will come.”

April 15, 3:30 p.m. Trump said in a press conference Wednesday that he will use his “constitutional authority” to force an adjournment of both the Senate and House of Representatives to make recess appointments if the Congress doesn't vote on his nominees. He called the delay in voting “a scam.”

"We need these people here,” he said. “We need people for this crisis and we don't want to play any more political games."

Pressed by a reporter, Trump doubled down.

“If they don’t act on getting these people approved that we need — we need them anyway but we especially need them now in a pandemic — we are going to do something I’d prefer not doing but I will do if I have to.”

Trump added there are "way over 100 people" waiting to be approved.

April 15, 2:45 p.m. Two Bay Area counties updated COVID-19 testing numbers Wednesday afternoon. Solano County announced five new cases, bringing the total to 140, and Sonoma County announced eight new cases, bringing the total there to 160.

April 15, 2:30 p.m. San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott warned city residents to be sure to socially distance while outdoors within the next few days, saying it’s possible that those who do not could be subject to a citation.

“You will see officers, you will see cadets, you will see park rangers, and also community workers at our parks and gathering spots we believe people will go to to get exercise or walk and to get outdoors today,” he said. “We haven’t changed our position with how we are approaching this; for those people out enjoying fresh air, we ask that they social distance, follow public health orders. We continue to stress voluntary compliance. For folks who have been warned, and that’s on record, you will be cited.”

Scott noted that to date, the city has issued nine citations for failure to comply with social distancing orders or for non-essential businesses operating in violation of current law. Five citations were issued to businesses and four to individuals.

“We’re not going to warn you twice,” he said.

April 15, 2:10 p.m. On Wednesday, Trent Rhorer, Executive Director of San Francisco’s Human Services Agency gave an update as to the number of hotel rooms acquired for use by the city for essential workers or the high-risk population.

The city now has 2,151 rooms across 14 hotels in San Francisco. A total of 1,271 are earmarked for those in the city’s most vulnerable population; the rest are for first responders and city employees working directly with the public. There are currently 874 individuals in those 1,271 rooms for the city’s most vulnerable.

Rhorer also noted that 81 total hotels have expressed interest in working with the city. Those rooms would add an additional 12,000 rooms to the stock available.

“This gives us the flexibility to increase the number of rooms, should we need,” he continued. “It also gives us the flexibility to choose types of hotel [rooms] suitable for certain populations. We’ve been segmenting rooms, for example, for people struggling with mental illness and addiction. We have a hotel staffed specifically for them with a room size that makes it a more effective location for those individuals.”

April 15, 2 p.m. Dr. Grant Colfax provided an update to case numbers related to MSC South homeless shelter, saying 92 guests and 10 staffers have now tested positive for the coronavirus.

He added that at Laguna Honda, there are now 18 cases total, including four among residents and 14 among staffers. Eleven of those staff members work in patient care.

The hospital has tested a total of 329 staff members and 272 residents, and the CDC remains onsite.

Colfax also announced the city's Chinese Hospital opened 23 new beds to help continue care for those discharged from urgent care at San Francisco General.

April 15, 1:45 p.m. The city of San Francisco announced Wednesday it would be opening a third test site in SoMa in collaboration with Verily’s Baseline COVID-19 Program and One Medical to increase the testing capacity in the city. The site at 600 7th Street, called CityTestSF, is not a walk-up test site, Mayor London Breed noted. A person needs to be showing symptoms before making an appointment at www.projectbaseline.com/COVID19.

The site, which can test up to 200 people per day, is first focusing on high-risk populations.

“People need to have complete information about their health so they can seek treatment and take the necessary precautions to protect themselves, their loved ones, and the entire community,” says Breed in a press release. “CityTestSF – SoMa is an important resource for members of the public who are experiencing symptoms and are looking for a safe and convenient place to get tested.”

April 15, 1:30 p.m. The city of San Francisco announced a new contract tracing program in conjunction with UCSF on Wednesday, which will “enable swifter communication, better data tracking, and improved interventions to reduce further spread.”

The city’s current process involves reaching out to family members and contacts of those individuals who have tested positive, but this expanded capacity to contact trace will allow the city to do more public outreach to see who that person has been in contact with.

“We can have people tested that may have been in contact with someone who has been infected,” Breed said. The new process is currently in a testing phase, and Breed notes there will be an app for the program.

“Case contacts will be able to receive daily text messages or phone calls checking in on their health and symptoms throughout the 14-day monitoring period,” reads an announcement on the city website. “They can self-report symptoms via text, immediately alerting public health officials that follow up or testing may be required.”

April 15, 1:10 p.m. Contra Costa County announced 63 new cases of the coronavirus Wednesday, bringing the total in the county to 615. The county also reported three new deaths — the most the county has reported in one day thus far — for a total toll of 14.

April 15, 1 p.m. California Gov. Gavin Newsom talked about “direct relief”—what he defined as, "help for those who need it most"— at a Wednesday press conference, touching on benefits for the unemployed, independent contractors and undocumented workers.

With the number of unemployed Californians swelling to 2.7 million in the past month, Newsom says he signed an executive order to extend the state’s unemployment call center hours to address an unprecedented call volume.

The call center will now be open from 8 a.m.-8 p.m., seven days a week; previous hours were 8 a.m. to noon, five days a week.

What’s more, 1,340 state workers will shift to working in the Employment Development Department to process claims for unemployment insurance.

The state has been processing about a million unemployment payments a week. Some of those checks are retroactive.

The governor shared that EDD staff insisted on working Easter to keep up with unemployment claims.



“If you ever have a doubt about public employees, I hope you’ll consider that example,” Newsom said.

Newsom shared that he also signed an executive order to advance the state’s workshare program that he says is currently “modest." He said countries such as Germany have robust workshare programs that provide employment insurance allowing workers to keep their status even if their hours are reduced.

Newsom noted that 10% of the state’s workforce is undocumented and don’t benefit from the federal stimulus or state unemployment programs. California will be offering $125 million in direct disaster assistance for undocumented workers, with $75 million coming from the state and $50 million philanthropists. Individual workers will be eligible for up to $500 and households $1,000, starting next month.

"We're the first state to announce a program for direct disaster assistance for those individuals," the governor said.

Applications for the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program in California will open April 28 and applies to some 1.5 million self-employed workers.

California Labor Secretary Julie Su explained the program provides unemployment assistance for the self-employed, independent contractors, employees whose wage data disqualifies them for unemployment insurance and those who have exhausted their unemployment insurance benefits. Once the program is in place, the state will turn around checks in 24-48 hours.

April 15, 12:10 p.m. Santa Clara County reported 127 additional cases of COVID-19 Wednesday, after a delay in reporting numbers. The 127 new cases thus reflect a two-day sum of new cases — 56 from Monday and 71 from Tuesday — bringing the county total to 1,793.

On Tuesday, Santa Clara County reported case data was not updated that day "due to system issues with California Reportable Disease Information Exchange (CalREDIE)."

On Wednesday the county also reported 5 new deaths over the previous two days, bringing the total deaths in the county to 65.

April 15, 11:30 a.m. Alameda County reported 13 additional deaths due to COVID-19 complications on Wednesday, bringing the county death toll to 36. This is the highest number of deaths reported in a single day by a Bay Area county since the virus start. It's likely a two-day total since the county didn't update its numbers on Wednesday. The highest number of deaths reported by a Bay Area county before this was San Mateo on April 7 with eight fatalities.

Unlike some areas of the country such as New York where hundreds of infected patients have died in a day, the Bay Area hasn't seen the surge that was initially forecast by some experts.

County officials also updated Alameda's total case count to 962, reporting 76 new coronavirus infections Wednesday.

April 15, 10:45 a.m. The organizers of the Marin County Fair announced Wednesday this summer's event is canceled.

The fair typically occurs in July at the Marin Center but fairgrounds and the facility are currently reserved as a resource in the response to the COVID-19 emergency.

“It’s with a very heavy heart that we make this decision,” Gabriella C. Calicchio, the county’s director of cultural services, said in a statement. “Since 1946, the Marin County Fair has been the premier family celebration in the County each summer. In our fair history, this is one of the most challenging times we have encountered.”

The next Marin County Fair will be July 1-5, 2021.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom suggested at a Tuesday press conference the likelihood of a large-scale event taking place in the state this summer is “negligible at best” while researchers seek a vaccine for the coronavirus.

"Large-scale events that bring in hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of strangers all together across every conceivable difference, health and otherwise, is not in the cards based on our expectations," Newsom said.

April 15, 10:20 a.m. The case count in San Francisco passed 1,000 Wednesday, reaching a total of 1,013. The city and county announced two additional deaths with the toll reaching 13.

Hospitals and clinics in S.F. have tested 9,001 individuals for the coronavirus and 13% of tests have been positive. Hospitalizations for COVID-19 illness have reached a plateau in the past week; today there are 88 individuals in hospitals for the virus. Yesterday, there were 90 and on Monday 94.

San Mateo County announced 26 new cases, bringing the total to 747 confirmed cases. The death toll remains 21.

April 15, 8 a.m. California Gov. Gavin Newsom presented a road map Tuesday for slowly and safely lifting the shelter-in-place order and reopening society and the economy.

The governor said new guidelines will take less of a "population approach," where everyone is required to stay at home, and call for more "individual accountability," such as requiring masks and temperature monitoring.

He didn't provide a timeline for when the new guidelines will be implemented, but he said before he modifies the stay-at-home mandate six things need to happen. The state must have the following:

1) Widespread testing and contact tracing, along with a ramped-up system for isolating and supporting individuals who test positive or are exposed to the coronavirus;

2) Systems and guidelines for preventing infection in people who are at risk for more severe illness, such as the elderly;

3) Well-equipped hospitals that can handle surges of infected patients;

4) Public-private partnerships for developing treatments that help infected patients recover quickly;

5) Guidelines for businesses, schools, and child care facilities to support physical distancing; and

6) The capacity to reimpose certain measures, such as the stay-at-home orders, if necessary.

Newsom explained this next stage will be "the bridge" that will get the state to the point when a vaccine becomes available. He made clear that while the conversation is starting about lifting some of the social-distancing requirements, the state may need to issue further stay-at-home orders in the future.

"I know you want timelines, but we can’t get ahead of ourselves," Newsom warned. "Let’s not make the mistake of pulling the plug too early, as much as we want to. I don’t want to make political decisions that put people’s lives risk and the economy at risk by extending the period of time before we can transition to get people moving again. That’s the sober reality, but the reality I think that provides a little light — that this is not a permanent state."

Cumulative cases in the greater Bay Area (due to limited testing these numbers reflect only a small portion of likely cases):

ALAMEDA COUNTY: 962 confirmed cases, 36 deaths

For more information on Alameda County cases, visit the public health department website.

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY: 615 confirmed cases, 14 deaths

For more information on Contra Costa County cases, visit the public health department website.

LAKE COUNTY: 5 confirmed cases

For information on Lake County and coronavirus, visit the public health department website.

MARIN COUNTY: 184 confirmed cases, 10 deaths

Fore more information on Marin County cases, visit the public health department website.

MONTEREY COUNTY: 108 confirmed cases, 3 deaths

For more information on Monterey County cases, visit the public health department website.

NAPA COUNTY: 38 cases, 2 deaths

For more information on Napa County cases, visit the public health department website.

SAN BENITO COUNTY: 41 confirmed cases, 2 deaths

For more information on San Benito County cases, visit the public health department website.

SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY: 1,013 confirmed cases, 17 deaths

For more information on San Francisco County cases, visit the public health department website.

SAN MATEO COUNTY: 767 confirmed cases, 28 deaths

For more information on San Mateo County cases, visit the public health department website.

SANTA CLARA COUNTY: 1,793 confirmed cases, 65 deaths

Fore more information on Santa Clara County cases, visit the public health department website.

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY: 96 confirmed cases, 2 deaths

For more information on Santa Cruz County cases, visit the public health department website.

SOLANO COUNTY: 141 confirmed cases, 2 deaths

For more information on Solano County cases, visit the public health department website.

SONOMA COUNTY: 163 confirmed cases, 2 deaths

For more information on Sonoma County cases, visit the public health department website.

In California, 864 coronavirus-related deaths have been reported, according to Johns Hopkins University. For comparison, New York has 11,586, New Jersey 3,156 and Louisiana 1,103.

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Amy Graff is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com.