San Francisco officials tell residents not to call 911 amid Omicron surge

Officials in San Francisco are asking residents not to call 911 except in dire emergencies to avoid further straining emergency resources, as coronavirus cases deplete the ranks of health workers, ambulance crews, firefighters and other essential workers.

Meanwhile, the state public health department is weighing whether to pause elective surgeries across the state, as individual hospitals are already considering which procedures to delay as Covid-19 reverberates through ranks of doctors, nurses and other hospital staff. This weekend, the health department issued controversial guidelines instructing workers at hospitals and skilled nursing facilities who tested positive for Covid-19 but were experiencing no symptoms to immediately return to work.

On Saturday, Newsom announced a new emergency funding package, that includes $614m to help hospitals hire more staff, $200m to boost emergency response and state public health capacity and $1.2b to bolster testing.