Coronavirus Updates: Vaccine restrictions could curb police presence in San Francisco

NEW YORK (WABC) -- San Francisco will become one of the first major U.S. cities to mandate full vaccinations for many indoor activities.

Friday the city will require that restaurants, bars, and museums check for proof of vaccination for indoor patrons. Not only that, but they are recommending that police officers, firefighters, and sheriff's deputies who refuse to report their vaccination status be suspended.

San Francisco police officers, firefighters, and sheriff's office deputies are feeling the pressure to get vaccinated.

The city now recommending that eight officers, seven firefighters, and two deputies be suspended without pay for not reporting their vaccination status.

That news comes in light of additional San Francisco restrictions that all of us will face come Friday.

Proof of vaccination will be required at indoor businesses like bars, restaurants, clubs, gyms, and museums like the Exploratorium.

Here are more of today's headlines:

Why you shouldn't rush to get a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot before it's your turn

In the next month, millions of Americans will get ready to roll up their sleeves for a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. But when it comes to booster shots, it's not as simple as "more is more" -- it's also a matter of when.

For severely immunocompromised people, a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine is available now. Come mid-September, that option is expected to be open for everyone who got Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, at least eight months after their second dose.

Health experts caution not to jump the gun -- or the line -- on when you might actually need a booster shot.

Large events canceled due to delta variant, wallop states' economies

A festival in New Orleans. Concerts in Nashville, Tennessee. A comic book convention in Atlanta. As the delta variant surges across the country, states with low COVID vaccination rates are reeling from a loss in tourism dollars due to large-event cancellations and postponements.

Of the 11 states with vaccination rates under 50%, Louisiana, Tennessee and Georgia have cancelled staple events, costing an estimated hundreds of millions of dollars for local and state economies, according to officials.

Conservative talk show host, vaccine skeptic Phil Valentine dies after battle with COVID

Phil Valentine, a Nashville-based conservative radio talk show host who had questioned whether it was necessary for all people to get Covid-19 vaccines, died on Saturday, his employer, WWTN Radio, announced on Twitter. Valentine was 61 years old.

Rev. Jesse Jackson, wife Jacqueline hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, 79, and his wife, Jacqueline, 77, have been hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19, according to a statement Saturday.

Jesse Jackson, a famed civil rights leader, is vaccinated against the virus and received his first dose in January during a publicized event as he urged others to receive the inoculation as soon as possible. The two are being treated at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

NY reports 21 COVID deaths, more than 45K vaccines administered

New York reported 21 COVID-related deaths for Saturday, and 45,609 doses of vaccine administered over the last 24 hours. 4,340 people tested positive for the virus, bringing the 7-day rolling average of positive tests to 3.14%.

"COVID-19 remains a serious threat to New Yorkers, and with the Delta variant spreading, the key to success is getting as many people vaccinated as we can," Governor Cuomo said in a statement. "Millions of New Yorkers have taken the vaccine, sites are open across the state and the shot is free and effective. I urge everyone eligible who hasn't gotten their shot yet to do so without delay."

TX lieutenant governor falsely blames COVID surge on unvaccinated Black Texans

The blame game over rising cases of COVID-19 continues along largely partisan lines, with Democrats attacking GOP governors who have banned measures like mask mandates and vaccine passports, and Republicans blaming the Biden administration's border policy for the uptick in cases.

The attacks heated up Thursday when Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick claimed that African Americans were to blame for the ever-increasing wave of coronavirus cases.

Patrick was asked on Fox News to respond to criticisms over his state's handling of the pandemic.

"The COVID is spreading," Patrick said, "particularly, most of the numbers are with the unvaccinated and the Democrats like to blame Republicans on that. Well, the biggest group in most states are African Americans who have not been vaccinated."

Florida gives school districts 48 hours to reverse mask mandates

Two Florida school districts that defied state rules and imposed mask mandates for students have been given 48 hours to reverse course or lose state funding equal to the salaries of their school board members.

In an order sent Friday to the districts in Alachua and Broward counties -- the first of five districts in the state to impose mask requirements this month -- the State Board of Education said that if they do not reverse their mandates in two days, the districts will have to provide Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran the current salaries of each school board member.

The Florida Department of Education said it then will start gradually withholding state funds -- equal to 1/12 of the salaries of the board members, monthly -- "until each district demonstrates compliance," according to a statement.

Patient seen on floor of COVID treatment site describes experience

Toma Dean had been in and out of the emergency room for the past two weeks, "extremely sick" with COVID-19, when she arrived at a Jacksonville, Florida, monoclonal antibody treatment center on Wednesday.

Because standing for too long left her feeling breathless, Dean made the decision to lie down on the floor of the makeshift treatment center until her appointment.

"My choices were to stay in and run out of breath and not be able to receive the treatment, or sit down on the floor and patiently wait for the line to go through and be able to get the treatment that I need. So I chose to lay down on the floor, and make it through this line," Dean told ABC News on Friday. "If I had chosen to stand up in line, I'd never make it to the treatment. I'd have been back at an ER. So I laid on the floor, until they got wheelchairs over to assist us."

Officials warn against using livestock dewormer to prevent COVID

Mississippi's poison control center has seen an increase in calls of people taking ivermectin, including versions of the deworming drug intended for livestock, to treat or prevent COVID-19, according to state health officials.

The Mississippi Health Department took to social media Friday to issue a warning about the phenomenon, which has been reported throughout the pandemic.

"Do not use ivermectin products made for animals," it said in a Facebook post.

Hospitalizations for people under 50, children up

The number of hospitalized children and people under 50 from COVID has now reached its highest level yet. COVID hospitalizations across the country hit nearly 93,000, the highest number of patients since January. The crisis is deepening in the south where states have among the lowest vaccination rates. In Alabama, ICUs are 100% full. In Mississippi, hospitalizations have surpassed last winter's peak. 20,000 students across the state are in quarantine after just the first week of school.

What to know about delta and other COVID-19 variants of concern

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listed the COVID-19 delta variant as one of its "variants of concern" (VOCs) on June 15. According to the CDC, VOCs can be more contagious, more dangerous, less susceptible to available treatments or harder to detect. The current VOCs all have mutations in the virus's spike protein, which acts as a key to break into cells to infect them. And that's a potential concern because the spike protein from the original version of the virus is what scientists used to design all three authorized vaccines. It's also what monoclonal antibody treatments latch on to so the virus can't get into your cells, effectively "neutralizing" the threat. So far none of these mutations have changed the virus enough to undercut the vaccines. The uncontrolled spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, means the virus is mutating quickly. That's why many new variants are being discovered in places with the highest infection rates and large numbers of unvaccinated individuals, like the United States, the United Kingdom, India and Brazil.

New York City COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker

New Jersey COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on coronavirus

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