San Francisco Chinatown's SRO residents can't avoid COVID outbreaks

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- ABC7 is excited to continue our partnership with the brand new San Francisco Standard. Part of Building A Better Bay Area is highlighting anyone who's working toward the same mission we have here at ABC7. The SF Standard's deep and insightful reporting on the city does just that.

As the COVID-19 pandemic nears its 2 year mark, some San Francisco residents are still disproportionately suffering from outbreaks due to their living situation.

San Francisco Chinatown's single-resident-occupancy (SRO) units are seeing a major spike in COVID cases. In these SRO units, tenants reside in a single-room and share common spaces like the kitchen and bathrooms. Many of the occupants don't have the financial capabilities to self-isolate when they come in contact with the virus which can leading to a outbreak within the entire building.

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To give us an insight into what's going on in these SROs and how the city is responding, San Francisco Standard reporter Han Li joined ABC7 News anchor Kristen Sze on "Getting Answers" Friday.

"From December to January, the COVID cases in our housing is over 600 cases, so that's over 1,000% increase, which is a really concerning trend," Li said. Li's report sparked a conversation at a recent Board of Supervisors meeting, in which he hopes tenants can be relieved with some sort of aid as they bring in the Lunar New Year.

Watch the full interview in the media player above.

See the San Francisco Standard's other original reporting here.