The number of winter heating aid applications received so far has jumped 130 percent from the same time last year, according to Orange County Department of Social Services Commissioner Darcie Miller.

The Home Energy Assistance Program, or HEAP, is a federal aid program that helps eligible residents heat and cool their homes.

In November—the opening month of the winter season—1,429 people applied, compared to 615 last year.

“This is a significant increase in our first month of activity,” Miller told The Epoch Times on Dec. 9. “People are trying to pay for higher priced groceries, fuel, higher rents, and there are a lot of concerns about the costs for home heating fuel.”

“This is a difficult time for our community, and people are looking for help,” Miller said.

For residents already on government aid programs such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance and Temporary Assistance, they will get automatic pre-applications to HEAP based on eligibility—and that number has increased too, according to Miller.

Combining both, the total HEAP applications reach above 4,000.

Miller adds that the opening month typically sees the greatest number of applications and that it is still too early to predict the rest of the season.

In a typical year, the department receives between 11,000 and 12,000 HEAP applications; the federal payout, including benefits to residents and payments to the county for administering the program, stands between seven and eight million, she said.

Kerosene is sold for $8.49 a gallon at a gas station in Cuddebackville, NY, on Dec. 11, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times)

As the interest in aid programs rises, the volume of inquiry calls also increases. One of the primary hotlines managed by the department averages 1,400 calls a day, compared to around 800 in the past seasons, Miller said.

Aside from regular benefit inquiries, she also noticed an increase in emergency calls from people who need immediate help to prevent a shutoff.

Currently, the department relies on staff reassignment and overtime to process the increased workload.

“Our community is looking for help, and we are just doing what we can to manage the influx of applications and be as supportive as we can,” Miller said. “The challenge, though, is that not everyone will be eligible.”

HEAP money is granted based on several factors, including income, household size, the primary heating source, and whether there is a household member who is under age 6, over age 60, or disabled.

A wood stove on display at Chimney Sweep Energy showroom in NY on Nov. 5, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times)

Qualified heating sources include electricity, gas, oil, coal, propane, wood or wood pellets, kerosene, and corn.

Applicants may take a pre-application survey on the website www.mybenefits.ny.gov to determine eligibility.

County Fuel Fund

Those who do not qualify for HEAP can turn to the Orange County Fuel Fund, which has a lower income threshold than the federal program.

For example, for a family of four, the maximum monthly income is $5,485 for HEAP but $6,582 for the county program.

On Dec 1, the county legislature approved an additional $60,000 for the fuel fund, bringing the total up to $100,000.

Miller said of the legislative move, “It is their acknowledgment that people that are just a bit over eligibility are still going to have a significant need.”

Cara is an Orange County, New York-based Epoch Times reporter. You can be reached at cara.ding@epochtimes.com

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CINCINNATI – Somehow Joe Burrow’s press conferences have become more known for reactions to coughs these days than the actual answers he gives.

For people who actually care about the content of his thoughts instead of viral reactions, an important line snuck into the conversation this week.

He was asked about this stretch of Atlanta, at Cleveland on Monday Night Football and Carolina coming up leading into the bye.

“The three games stretch,” Burrow said, “I think will determine how our season goes.”

From the same producer who brought you, “let’s all just take a deep breath and relax,” and “nobody is panicking” we have this midseason run determining the direction of the year.

Yeah, that’s notable.

Every week feels like it means more in the moment. That’s just the nature of the intense scrutiny on the league. Consider the tone around these parts last week compared to this one: Pitchforks to praises.

In this particular case, it’s tough to argue with Burrow’s assessment.

The failures of the first quarter of the season have put the Bengals in this position. Anything worse than 5-4 at the bye (which would be the same as last year) would offer legitimate reason to wonder if they took on too much early water to bubble back up against a much tougher schedule on the horizon.

Through the first nine games the Bengals will have faced just one quarterback higher than Tier 4 in Mike Sando’s preseason QB tiers. That’s Lamar Jackson.

Burrow was one of six Tier 1 QBs in the league.

After Kenny Pickett or whoever ends up starting for Pittsburgh in Week 11 finishes off the run of unheralded QBs, the final seven games of the year expect to feature every quarterback in Tier 3 or higher.

A hiccup or two over this current stretch and the team will spend much time bemoaning the need to beat Allen and wondering how they lost to Cooper Rush, Mitch Trubisky and, say, Marcus Mariota.

That brings us to Sunday. The Falcons and Bengals looked like very different teams on paper before the season started. On the field through six weeks, you can find striking similarities. Both have won three of four. Both could easily have been better than 3-3. The three Falcons’ losses are by a total of 11 points. The Bengals are by eight.

The primary difference is the expectations the football world placed upon them. Atlanta clearly has deficiencies. The Bengals should be able to tear up a secondary that is both beat up and understaffed. This should be the type of game Burrow puts up monster numbers as you saw last week in New Orleans or during his hot stretch in the second half of last year.

Tradition suggests in this league, that should be enough. Yet, the league is shifting this year. The rise of these power running teams asserting their style back into the winning conversation has been the trend of the year. Atlanta is at the head of that with a line that can run block as well as anyone and diverse run scheme capable of taking over a game.

The number to determine a win or loss will be the Falcons’ rushing yards. Allow them to pound Paycor for 150 or more on the ground and the Bengals will be in jeopardy. Keep it under and this could be one where the Bengals breathe easy in the final minutes for a change.

Attrition up the defensive spine and recent results suggest this will be easier said than done.

I still think the Bengals and Burrow do it. Cincinnati’s red zone defense feels like the determining factor again.

Prediction: Bengals 27, Falcons 23

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) calls a play at the line against the New Orleans Saints during the first half at Caesars Superdome. Stephen Lew-USA Today Sports

On Tap

The Bengals host the Falcons this Sunday at 1 p.m. ET at Paycor Stadium — the first 1 p.m. Sunday home game since the opener against Pittsburgh. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The game will air on Fox with Brandon Gaudin and Robert Smith in the booth and Jennifer Hale on the sideline. Will be a treat to see Devon and Leah Still back in Cincinnati as Rulers of the Jungle. Leah is cancer-free and it’s such a joy to see a success story that started in such a difficult place come full circle. The way this city and the Bengals’ organization rallied around Devon and Leah in 2014 was one of the greatest storylines involving the team in 13 years I’ve been covering the club.

This Week in Burrow

I wrote extensively about Burrow on third downs and high-leverage situations this year, a major talking point around him as the Bengals offense starts to find its footing.

So, I’ll just say that this section has already been checked off.

I will, however, offer a bit of a deleted scene from the story.

I wanted to dive a little into the importance of Burrow’s knowledge of protections in the piece, but it ended up being one thing too many. But it was pointed out how important his relationship with the gregarious captain Ted Karras has been.

Karras and Burrow have really connected. Partly because of how much Karras just absolutely loves football and line play. That prompted this anecdote from head coach Zac Taylor when asked about it.

“We finished a walkthrough and I heard him talk about ‘Okey Double Bugs’ with passion,” Taylor said of a unique protection call. “That’s the highest level of passion you could imagine about ‘Okey Double Bugs’ and different looks he saw. He wanted to make sure he got his points across. I walked away, those are player moments where he clearly wanted to take it over. He made me feel really good about how we would handle those looks the next day. The (offensive line) meeting ended. It was over. He decided to have another meeting. It’s 8:39 p.m. probably, right before the team meeting Saturday night.”

Quotable

There was an otherwise forgettable play in Sunday’s game at New Orleans that stuck out to me all week. Joe Mixon caught a checkdown midway through the second quarter. As he pushed up the sideline cornerback Paulson Adebo made a flailing attack of Mixon’s legs trying to take him down.

Mixon snapped off a nasty jump cut to the outside that made the entire dome crowd go, “oooh,” in unison. The electric and loud nature of the crowd made it an even more noticeable reaction and Mixon deserved it.

I asked him about it this week and his answer was great.

“I’ll be real, I was running, and I tune everything out,” he said. “It’s literally me focused. I hear nothing. That was one play where I could really hear the whole crowd like, ‘ooooh.’ Then after the play, I was like, ‘Did the whole crowd just say oooh?’ It was a cool thing.”

Sure was. Cool to hear. Cool to watch. And for the Bengals, cool to see coming from Mixon, who struggled to make plays in space the first four weeks of the season. Against Baltimore and New Orleans, some of the old Mixon energy and playmaking has started to show up. He enjoyed his two best games for yards after contact. After only two rushes of more than 10 yards through the first four games, Mixon had four such rushes the last two weeks.

“That’s what I can do,” he said. “If I get the opportunity like that in space, I got to make them pay. When given that opportunity in those one-on-one situations, I got to make it count, no matter what.

“I’ll be honest, if I can get in space where it’s clear as daylight one on one, there’s no question I’ll win 10 out of 10 times. I’m supposed to feel like I’ll win 10 out of 10 times. That’s the type of player I’m capable of being.”

Quotable, Part II

Offensive line coach Frank Pollack is always one for quotability. He offered another on Thursday in reference to left tackle Jonah Williams.

Williams, notably, dislocated his kneecap just before halftime against the Ravens. He played through that pain, only missing six snaps in the “Sunday Night Football” game. Not only that, in Pollack’s eyes he played incredibly well.

“He hurt his knee in Baltimore and he had probably the best half I’ve seen him play,” Pollack said. “He went out and played with a bum knee this last week and played great. I told him I’ll take a bat to your knee every week if I need to.”

No word on the Bengals hiring offensive line consultant Jeff Gillooly anytime soon.

Twitter Question of the Week

@pauldehnerjr I must have missed it, when will Reader be back? They miss him in the worst way

— Doug (@doug_c_67) October 16, 2022

For one, Doug, you are spot on. The Bengals do miss Reader in the worst way. Jay Morrison detailed that well in his story on the struggling rush defense this week. He pointed out the Bengals gave up an average of 86 yards per game the first three weeks at 3.7 yards per carry. In the last three weeks, it’s 156 yards per game and 5.6 per rush.

Does it all direct back to Reader? No. They’ve played more talented rush offenses the last three weeks, but his absence represents a big slice of the pie.

As for when he will be back, his presence on the rehab field and the sideline this past week suggest he’s tracking in the right direction. He couldn’t even travel with the team to Baltimore because they don’t want players lacking in mobility on the sideline in case they need to move to avoid a play spilling out of bounds.

As for a more specific timeline, the probabilities still shade toward a post-bye return. He’s first eligible to come back for “Monday Night Football” against the Browns and the Bengals and Reader are obviously hopeful, not closing the door on it. However, understanding the big picture of the season with an extremely winnable game against Carolina then a bye after, it means Nov. 21 at Pittsburgh is a realistic aiming point.

Stories from the inside

There are two ping-pong tables inside the Bengals’ locker room. There’s an ‘A’ table and a ‘B’ table. When we are in there — typically during the Bengals’ lunch break — there are always games happening on them. Anybody hearing the sound of the balls hitting paddles in the background of our interviews posted on the podcast is well aware.

The two best players on the team are Mitchell Wilcox and Trent Taylor. They are regulars on the ‘A’ table. Their battles are wild. Both standing far back from the table, ripping shots from deep as you might see in Olympics highlights. An idea struck me while watching this and discussing how every team seems to have ping-pong tables in the locker room (that inevitably become some kind of storyline about a loose team when it arrives or a return of discipline when it’s removed).

It’s time to replace the coin toss before games.

Instead, each team sends its best ping pong player to the 50-yard line, where a table and two paddles await. They play a quick game to seven to determine who gets to decide to defer or receive. It’s like when the XFL tried rolling out the football in a fumble recovery drill to determine the winner, just without the injuries.

You’re welcome.

This will be submitted to the competition committee in March.

Degenerate corner

This game presents a spread rarity. This year Atlanta is 6-0 against the spread. Nobody expected them to be as feisty as they’ve been, and it’s shown in the final scores.

The Falcons come to Cincinnati as 6.5-point underdogs.

Considering Atlanta covering every game, the Bengals’ penchant to playing in close contests and neither team losing by more than a score, 6.5 feels like a generous number.

However, there’s not much history to suggest the Falcons’ momentum will continue the trend.

There are eight teams — including Atlanta — that started the season 6-0 against the spread since the turn of the century. Four of them covered the spread again in their seventh games, three did not. Winners include the 2021 Cowboys, 2018 Chiefs, 2007 Patriots and 2008 Titans.

There’s little reason to believe the Bengals would be taking Atlanta lightly considering how the Falcons dismantled San Francisco last week, 28-14. Still an interesting trend to ponder.

Overly researched stat of the week

The Bengals’ red zone defense continues to be among the best in the NFL, currently ranking third allowing a touchdown 35.3 percent of the time. It saved them in New Orleans. The Saints entered that game boasting the second-best red zone offense in football (80 percent) but left just 1 for 5. In a matchup of strength on strength with the game in the balance, the Bengals prevailed.

Meanwhile, Atlanta now comes to town riding similar red-zone success. The Falcons rank fifth in the league with a 66.7 percent touchdown rate.

The difference between the two would be the approach to pushing it over the goal line.

New Orleans threw the ball in the red zone 62 percent of the time prior to last week, ninth most.

Meanwhile, Atlanta has the second-highest run rate among all teams in the red zone at 69 percent.

When those crucial downs take place, look for extra linebackers to end up part of three-down alignment to play tendencies.

Either way, it does play into what has also been a strength of this defense. Of the 40 plays run against Cincinnati in the red zone this year, 15 have been runs. Only one went for a touchdown (a 1-yard plunge by Tony Pollard in Dallas) and only a six-yard sweep by CeeDee Lamb went for more than four yards.

The Bengals rank second in the league in yards allowed per carry in the red zone.

More strength on the strength coming Sunday.

Bengals post of the week

Fans might not think much about the investment in the content team that’s been made by the Cincinnati front office, but for somebody who has been close to that world for a long time, I can tell you it’s a mind-boggling shift.

That’s the NFL world we live in now. Behind-the-scenes video, extra content, documentaries, you name it. In-house content has become valuable to the league, teams, fan bases and the NFL has its arms hugged tightly around its rights.

The Bengals have piled resources of all varieties into that world in recent years and the perfect example was the 15-minute look at Ja’Marr Chase and his family returning home that Marisa Contipelli and Shea Stephenson put together. They were even able to convince NFL Films to help out by dropping a mic on Chase during that game that has turned out to be a treasure trove of incredible content.

Chase was breaking ankles thanks to the return of his grill @Real10jayy__ | @Bengals pic.twitter.com/tcoYa7qcZj

— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) October 20, 2022

Contipelli and Stephenson went to New Orleans earlier this season for background content then were all over the place this past Sunday capturing the sights and sounds of a special moment for one of the premier personalities on the team and in this league.

Just excellent work, impressive hustle, an efficient plan and a perfect example of what hiring great people and supporting them can do for connecting a fan base to its players.

Highly recommend watching the full-length feature (the trailer was awesome, too).

Watch the full feature here: https://t.co/VZs2byry5r

— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) October 20, 2022

Opponent

Atlanta (3-3): Josh Kendall joined HTPG this week with fantastic insight on Atlanta. He also wrote why the Bengals are a bad matchup for the Falcons.

Around the division

Steelers (2-4): Mitch Trubisky, Kenny Pickett and halftime altercations, all the fun is happening in Pittsburgh.

Browns (2-4): Cleveland is ‘headed nowhere soon’ according to Zac Jackson. A man very familiar with teams heading nowhere.

Ravens (3-3): Baltimore’s running game is coming together just in time for a critical stretch.

The Athletic Wormhole

The Christian McCaffery trade to the 49ers was a fascinating one from both sides. First, the latest cautionary tale about paying running backs. As the Panthers basically paid $27 million for six games of an extension. The Bengals will be contemplating this situation with Mixon contract in coming years. These things rarely work out well. In fact, Mixon might be one of the most successful examples and his contract hasn’t exactly been a jewel of the Bengals salary cap situation.

These backs nearly always start to break down and see health situations ruin them. This has been known and discussed at length for nearly a decade now. Yet, teams still keep piling money into the position instead of picks. Joe Person wrote about how that is essentially the legacy of McCaffery in Carolina.

On the flip side, the Rams’ “F— them picks” model shows back up. This time in San Francisco. I’m actually stunned the 49ers would give up the 2023 2,3,4 and 2024 5th for McCaffery. The guy can play. He’s a star, no question. But that is a significant ransom to turn over for any running back, particularly one with injury history. Those are the types of trades that eat at the core of your future. Tim Kawakami wrote an enlightening piece about how this was the 49ers showing their hand about this season.

Dad Life

The first draft of my story about Burrow and his third-down magic this week included multiple Frozen (and Frozen II) references, including an ideal analogy involving an ice palace on the North Mountain.

I eventually decided they all needed to be edited out. As a girl dad, it was a deep cut.

I’ve developed a real appreciation for Frozen and Frozen II in watching it 94 times over the last few years. A Disney tale where two sisters stand up for each other is great messaging compared to “You better get a man and become a princess or you will be cleaning chimneys and organizing the attic the rest of your life” from the Cinderella days.

Equally, Encanto has become the new house favorite around here. My girls are obsessed with it. Again, another new Disney movie with a significantly better message than the early days. The concept that it’s OK not to be perfect and being yourself is all you need is a far cry from, ‘Hey look at this cute deer, bang, she’s dead.’

Unbelievably, found a Disney on Ice Show about Frozen and Encanto together is coming to Heritage Bank Arena. It’s almost as if my girls were in charge of planning this year’s tour. The excitement level will be at its peak come March.

This has also prompted me to go on record with my top five ranking of songs from those three movies because I’ve had way too much time to think about this over the past few years.

1. Let it Go, Frozen: There’s a reason it’s so popular. One of the best individual songs from any Disney song in history.
2. Lost in the Woods, Frozen II: Let’s be honest, this one was for the parents. When all the reindeer show up in true 80s style is a top three moment in the entire Frozen series.
3. Surface Pressure, Encanto: The chorus is incredible. Lin Manuel-Miranda’s style showing up in a big way. Sometimes after dropping the girls off somewhere the phone will revert back to when Encanto was playing before. If it’s Surface Pressure, I let it finish before switching back.
4. All of You, Encanto: Perfectly pulls all the themes of the movie together and the line, “OK, so …. we gonna talk about Bruno?” is one of my favorites.
5. In Summer, Frozen: More Josh Gad in our lives, please.

OK, I feel better getting that off my chest. Hopefully, it makes up for axing my line about Grand Pabbie explaining the inherent danger of magic.

(Top photo of Joe Burrow: Chris Graythen / Getty Images)

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Inflation is at the highest point in over 40 years, the finance and tech sectors are suffering from a significant economic downturn, and the city’s tax base appears to be on a course of a collision with an iceberg.

These are the realities in San Francisco — and many economic forecast seminars indicate that the economy won’t come back fully until 2025. If we don’t act now, we are in for a bumpy ride.

There is a solution. If we double down on tourism, we can save our city.

To understand the importance of tourism, one must first look at the numbers. In 2019, prior to the pandemic, San Francisco welcomed more than 26 million visitors, who spent over $10 billion in our local economy. That spending generated over $819 million in taxes and fees for our city’s general fund, the majority coming from the hospitality industry. The industry employed more than 86,000 people in San Francisco and the Bay Area.

Additionally, unlike some sectors of our economy, tourism is a “consensus” industry: we all benefit when tourism does well. Specifically, it benefits our workers, our tax base, our restaurants, small businesses and it gives San Franciscans something to be proud of. The tax money we get from tourism pays for critical city services and programs.

Tourism in the modern era is significantly impacted by the global economy and geopolitical realities. When energy and food costs go up, or when a foreign country limits travel here, tourism is negatively impacted.

That is particularly why we must be proactive and surgical with our efforts to enhance tourism.

The good news is we have recently seen some steps in the right direction, particularly as it relates to cleanliness, public safety and with workers coming back to the office. Tourist destinations such as Union Square and Fisherman’s Wharf are noticeably cleaner and safer than they were last year. City leadership, Business Improvement Districts (such as the Union Square Alliance), the hospitality industry and the broader tourism industry have collectively taken collaborative efforts to push forward with this positive momentum.

The most obvious example of that collaboration was the recent Dreamforce convention, where everything went incredibly well and gave San Francisco the opportunity to show the world that it is open again for large-scale conventions. In fact, speaking to people visiting the convention from other cities was eye-opening. Many people indicated that our city was in better shape than what they had seen in the news, and in some situations, in better shape than their own respective cities.

Nonetheless, there are still numerous challenges we all see daily on our streets and much more work to do.

Mayor Breed’s recent expansion of the Street Ambassador program is a good step in the right direction. We need to take additional action to ensure that the street conditions within the 1-mile radius around Moscone (the city’s convention center) are among the best in San Francisco. Although easier said than done, that requires increased resources dedicated to safety and cleanliness. It also includes low-cost improvements, such as an upgraded street sign system to help pedestrians get to Moscone.

We also need to start encouraging people to visit our city. In fact, now that Union Square is in noticeably better shape than last year, we can all help by visiting this holiday season (much like how people did before the pandemic).

Additionally, we have a special opportunity to change the trajectory of our city’s recovery if we continue to act in the coming year. San Francisco will have a competitive advantage to attract environmentally conscious tourists, because starting in January, we will be the most environmentally sustainable tourism destination in the country. The hospitality industry in San Francisco will be making massive strides in using renewable energy, expanding electric vehicle charging options, and producing close to zero waste. January is also when we have our JP Morgan Convention, a chance again to work collaboratively to ensure that the city’s tourism industry starts the year off right.

Our city has some of the most beautiful parks and views in the world. In fact, we recently made National Geographic’s top 25 best worldwide destinations for travelers. We have some of the best restaurants, coffee, and wine anyone could ask for. We just need to keep pushing forward on the recent positive momentum to reap greater rewards.

Some people left San Francisco during the pandemic, but many of you stayed. You stayed because this is your home, and because in some capacity, you believe in the magic of San Francisco.

As a native San Franciscan, I too believe in this city. It is why I moved back to the city from LA, even though I loved it there, even though where I lived there — Glendale, CA — also felt like home. Unlike the people who left San Francisco due to its challenges, I came back at this pivotal moment because I chose to bet on our city and its tourism industry.

I hope our city does the same — and doubles down on that bet as well.

Alex Bastian is the President and CEO of the Hotel Council of San Francisco.

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The highly infectious variant of Omicron appears to be well established in the Bay Area and is likely to fuel outbreaks and early spikes in COVID cases across the region, health officials said Tuesday.

Case numbers in San Francisco have doubled in the past five days, almost certainly due to the spread of omicrons in the community, said Dr. Grant Colfax, Head of the Department of Health. He said the city has now identified 32 Omicron cases, but he suspects there are many more.

The variant is also the likely source of a major COVID outbreak in Marin County that infected more than half of those attending a Christmas party. At Stanford, nearly three-quarters of the virus samples screened for variants in the past week appear to be omicrons, said Dr. Ben Pinksy, director of the clinical virology laboratory that performs genome sequencing for several Bay Area counties.

“It has really picked up speed over the last week. We went from very few to essentially the most omicrons, ”Pinksy said. “I think almost all cases will soon be omicron.”

The soaring tide from Omicron is reported across California and resulted in Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday saying he would soon have all health care workers boosted in addition to a full vaccination. Studies are increasingly showing that Omicron is better able to evade vaccine immunity than previous variants, but boosters appear to numb infection and prevent serious illness.

Bay Area health officials are preparing for a spate of Omicron cases in the coming weeks or even days as Omicron spreads across the country at an amazing rate. The first US case of Omicron was reported in San Francisco on December 1, and by last week the variant accounted for three-quarters of the cases nationwide, according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In response to swelling cases across the country, President Biden announced new maneuvers to combat Omicron on Tuesday, including plans to ship half a billion rapid test kits to American households and deploy thousands of federal health workers to parts of the country to deal with an intolerable burden of hospitals to expect.

Much remains uncertain how an omicron surge would play out in the United States, and especially in high-vaccine places like the Bay Area. Local health officials say they are concerned that even if most of the cases caused by Omicron are mild, a massive spike – potentially causing a more widespread disease than any previous spike – could overwhelm hospitals or disrupt basic services like education or transportation .

“It’s so difficult to get our collective minds under it because Omicron is moving at a breathtaking speed,” said Dr. Sara Cody, Santa Clara County Health Officer. “It’s difficult for us humans to keep up with this virus.”

Kaiser Permanente Tent, 2350 Geary Blvd .; Monday-Friday, 8.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m.

Chinese Hospital, 845 Jackson St .; Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (closed from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.)

San Francisco General Hospital, 1001 Potrero Ave., Building 30; Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Southeast Health Center, 2401 Keith St .; Open Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-4.30 p.m., Thursday until 7 p.m.

See morecollapse

Omicron appears to be taking over at a particularly challenging time in the Bay Area – just days before Christmas, a holiday many residents wanted to celebrate two or three weeks ago with little fear of COVID given the overall high vaccination rates.

Health officials said they wouldn’t stop people from gathering for the holidays this year. But the new variant, which is heavily mutated and potentially better able to evade immunity and infect even fully vaccinated individuals, poses new risks.

According to Bay Area health officials, there is an urgent need for anyone who has been fully vaccinated for at least six months to receive a booster, if they haven’t already. “What is worrying is that vaccination may not offer much protection in people who are not given a booster,” said Dr. Chris Farnitano, Contra Costa County Health Officer. “A booster shot may not protect you from a mild illness, but it should protect you from a serious illness.”

Cody noted that the Bay Area’s robust vaccine uptake could make the region a little more susceptible to Omicron than other parts of the country, given that so many people were vaccinated early, which means their antibody immunity has now faded.

“We were in great shape and now the immunity is off and we all need to be strengthened,” said Cody. “Now if I could hire anyone eligible in the county to increase, I would wave my wand and do that.”

Omicron has not yet turned into a regional surge in coronavirus cases, although numbers are rising across the Bay Area. On Monday, the region reported about 1,100 cases a day, about double what it was a month ago. Hospital stays have also increased by around 20%.

But local health officials said they see worrying signs of an impending spike and have no reason to believe the region will be spared the spate of cases already reported in other parts of the country.

Preliminary reports in San Francisco show the case rate doubled from December 13 to December 18 – from about 10 cases per 100,000 people per day to 21 cases per 100,000, according to Colfax. “And I expect that case rate will double every two to three days,” he said.

“If Delta COVID was on steroids, Omicron COVID is on speed,” Colfax said. “It’s so much more transferable.”

Colfax noted that while only 32 Omicron cases have been reported to date, San Francisco should assume this is much more widespread – a concern that is being echoed by health officials across the Bay Area, even in counties that still support Omicron have not identified.

“We haven’t contacted Omicron yet, but we expect there are many cases in San Mateo County,” said Dr. Curtis Chan, the assistant health officer. Coronavirus cases had risen in San Mateo County for about two weeks, he said, attributing the rise to Delta and Omikron.

In Alameda County – which identified one of the first omicron outbreaks in the country in early December, among a group of healthcare workers who attended an out-of-state wedding – cases are also rising, likely due to the new variant, said Dr. Nicholas Moss, the health officer.

Like his colleagues, Moss advised people to make more arrangements than they might originally intended for holiday celebrations. Ideally, people would do quick tests before attending a gathering, Moss said, though he acknowledged the tests can now be hard to find.

But aside from the tests, he and other health officials said people should consider skipping large holiday parties and focusing on smaller get-togethers with close family members. They should try to gather outdoors whenever possible and open windows and doors if they need to meet indoors. People should wear face covering around those at high risk.

“We have now reached the point where the mental health needs – the human needs – of being with loved ones and friends are so important,” said Dr. Karen Relucio, Napa County’s Health Officer. “We don’t want to tell people what to do. People have to decide individually whether to take this risk. “

The Chronicle’s author, Catherine Ho, contributed to this report.

Erin Allday is a contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: eallday@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @erinallday

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1 dead and another injured in shooting in San Francisco Haight-Ashbury

Two men were shot dead and one killed on Thursday afternoon in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. Neighbors and business owners report that they have recently noticed an increase in gun violence and other types of crime in the area.

SAN FRANCISCO – A double gunfight in San Francisco Thursday left one dead and another injured, and the midday murder near the busy Haight Street and Masonic Avenue intersection rocked the violence-rising neighborhood.

“We didn’t hear anything, it came out of nowhere,” said Gregory Kazzouh, a clerk who was startled by the sudden gunfire outside his window.

Bystanders rushed to take cover in the market, and Kazzouh called 911.

Outside he could see someone bleeding on the sidewalk.

“To be honest, it’s sad that this neighbor is changing for the worse,” said Kazzouh, who grew up in Haight.

“It wasn’t like that a few years ago and it’s changing. I do not like it.”

When investigators were working on the crime scene, the victim’s body was covered with a yellow tarpaulin.

Some of his relatives arrived at the police compound, clearly desperate and embraced with tears.

MORE: 1 dead and another injured in shooting in San Francisco Haight-Ashbury

A second man was hit in the volley of shots and hospitalized, but details of the suspect and motive remained scarce.

“I can’t say that people knew each other, we just don’t know that yet,” said Captain Christopher Pedrini of the SFPD’s parking station.

Pedrini hears from residents alarmed that the once vibrant Upper Haight is now being ravaged by car and home break-ins and worse.

“In general, it’s a pretty quiet, peaceful neighborhood, although we’ve had some incidents lately that made people worry,” said Pedrini.

Teens clink their fists after stabbing someone they lured into parking

Three teenagers were arrested after being found guilty of killing 29-year-old Sohail Ali after luring him into promising to meet a girl he spoke to online. Video: West Midlands Police, England

Many traders in the corridor are demanding more police presence.

“There was shooting down here two weeks ago and a guy was stabbed to death a few weeks ago,” said Mike Bishop, who runs a retail store. “The police come and go because they don’t like DA Chesa Boudin. They don’t think he’s going to prosecute anyone, so they don’t want to do anything.”

Bishop heard the shots from his shop and came running.

“If the police were around, the guy might have waited and taken him to the next block,” Bishop said, “but a police presence is preventive policing and that’s what we ask, we need it because we get it be shot. “

When the scene was cleared and the road cleared, a US Mail truck was towed away with its tire flattened by a flying bullet.

And in the evening, the people driving home were largely unsuspecting when they passed a small sidewalk memorial to the victim, in which about a dozen candles were burning.

“It shakes my sense of security, but my sense of security has been shaken since Covid started, so this is what it is,” said Dustin Espersen, a 15-year-old Haight-Ashbury resident who is soon moving to New York.

“I tell people they are more aware of those around them,” said Aaron Sanders, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1968.

“I could have been here at the wrong time and it happens too often, too many people, it’s like everyone’s a little bit scared,” said Sanders.

The last shooting in the area two weeks ago was a block away in Haight and Central.

One person was injured in the incident and several parked cars and a coffee shop were riddled with bullets.

Police blamed gang tensions for the violence, and it is possible that the outbreak was related to gangs on Thursday.

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After taking over the home management startup Setter in December, Thumbtack – one of the pioneers in the gig economy for home services – launched a large round to double the model. The company has raised $ 275 million, money the company plans to use with its network of home service professionals to build a property management and maintenance business. Co-founder and CEO Marco Zappacosta confirmed the round valued Thumbtack at $ 3.2 billion.

In some context, that’s almost double the rating Thumbtack had on its last fundraising, a $ 150 million round led by Sequoia in 2019. It also follows a strong 2020 with sales up more than 50%. Thumbtack’s gross sales (what it pays in service fees, not Thumbtack’s cut) are now well on track to exceed $ 2 billion this year.

This latest funding is being led by the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), which also includes Blackstone Alternative Asset Management (BAAM) and G Squared. Previous donors Baillie Gifford, CapitalG, Founders Circle Capital, Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global Management also invested.

The funding and shifting focus of the company underscores some of the changes we’ve seen in consumers over the past year.

Because of Covid-19, most of us have stayed at home in large part – which often includes moving to a new home to spend so much more time in – and, as Thumbtack sees it, has a lot more people led to paying more attention to how to make these homes better places and keep them in better shape overall. Partly why it sees a great opportunity – besides being a marketplace for finding professionals for one-off jobs that you may need to do around the home – in providing a “home management” platform to do justice to this new attention.

“It’s pretty wild that people’s homes are their greatest asset, the most complicated thing to be responsible for, but there is no manual,” Zappacosta said in an interview. “When you think about your car, you have to maintain it regularly. Otherwise, you might have to pay a large emergency bill [to fix something]. The same concept applies to the house. But there was never an easy way to know what to do, how much to pay for it, and then just get it done. That’s what we do. “

Services include emergency repairs to electrical systems in the house, as well as preventive maintenance that you may need to do on your property, he said. They do not include contractors to renovate bathrooms or other elective work.

Moving to property management is an interesting twist for another reason too. It’s a sign of how Thumbtack is contributing to a bigger change in the overall use of services: through subscriptions.

That said, while many of us still go shopping or go to the movies every now and then, we all also subscribe to at least one video-on-demand service, many of us may also have Prime accounts in order to enjoy the various benefits of Amazon received, and so on. If we subscribe to everything and everywhere, why not include house maintenance as well?

Thumbtack, now over a decade old, is viewed by many as one of the first steps in the gig economy focusing on home services. However, this has not remained without its challenges. As we reported back in 2019, the last round was a difficult one for the company and it looked like it could come to a flat valuation. That was on the heels of many others in the industry – Thumbtack’s competitors that included not just other startups but heavyweights like Amazon and Google – who fizzled out in their own home services endeavors.

And Covid-19 also proved to be a huge challenge for Thumbtack, which laid off 250 people in March last year.

“Yeah, look, it’s been a year’s roller coaster ride,” Zappacosta said when I asked him about it. “In the early stages of COVID, there was so much fear that many simply switch everything off. People said, ‘I won’t have anyone in my house.’ And so those months were really scary – March, April – because it was unclear how long it would be. And so we made adjustments to make sure we stand the test of time. “

However, that seemed to change later in the year, he continued.

“When people started getting used to masking, and all the precautions, you know, the demand came back. And so in June, July we saw it return to normal levels. And then you know what happened, the big investments we’ve made in the platform over the past few years are to pay off the hiring experience, a lot more e-commerce, really more and more. “

He said 2020 was Thumbtacks’ third year of accelerated growth, “which is kind of surprising given that Covid was in the thick of it. And so [with] the momentum we exert … we’ve never been in a stronger position. “

That also helped to win this last round.

“Thumbtack’s modernization of the home service industry is a boon for both homeowners and home service professionals,” said Bryan Schreier, partner at Sequoia Capital and Thumbtack board member, in a statement. “The biggest obstacle to starting new home projects is headache and anger. By creating a better and easier way for everyone to take care of their home, Thumbtack will open up a huge category and spark new economic activity. “

The company is now focused on where it could best use the technology to gain the upper hand on its platform, which not only competes with other home service marketplaces, but also with a growing number of emerging and established “property management” providers How great, the last month we raised $ 50 million.

An interesting idea that Zappacosta described to me and that could well be part of a later development phase was to offer customers an opportunity to “tour” their homes so that Thumbtack could get a better idea of ​​the room and what would be better observed the property management has to personalize the respective house and the respective user.

That will keep the company in the US, too, instead of expanding internationally. Globally, the home services and repairs market is valued at about $ 500 billion annually, and astonishingly, the US represents a whopping 40% of that value.

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