SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) — “We need people to be responsible. To keep their distance from others. To avoid gatherings and wash their hands.”

San Francisco Mayor London Breed is urging people to continue to work together to stop the spread of coronavirus.

On Wednesday, she announced ways to make testing for the virus a priority in the city. The mayor will be adding more testing sites and appointments.

“I am really proud of the work we are doing to expand testing in San Francisco but we know we can’t test our way out of this pandemic,” Breed said.

With the recent surge of coronavirus across the country and in the Bay Area, Mayor Breed is increasing access to testing throughout the city.

On Wednesday — she announced three major expansions.

The City Test SF site at the Embarcadero will add 400 new appointments per day.

Two new mobile testing sites will also be added by the end of next week, and travel to neighborhoods most affected by the pandemic, performing up to 250 tests per day.

And a new long term test site will also be added in the southeastern part of the city — with the ability to do about 500 tests each day.

“We can slow the spread of COVID-19. We have flattened the curve before and we must do it again,” Dr. Grant Colfax said. “Lives are at stake.”

The city’s public health director, Dr. Grant Colfax, say’s it is getting hard for people to book appointments and the turnaround times for test results continue to vary anywhere from 3 to 10 days in San Francisco.

Their goal is to conduct at least 1800 tests per day and in the past week, they’ve exceeded that — by averaging more than 3,200 a day.

The new test sites and appointment slots will increase the amount of tests the city is currently averaging by about 45%.

But Mayor Breed says she’s still upset by the amount of people in the city not taking this seriously.

“I am really disappointed because what you are doing when you gather with friends, when you are not wearing your mask, you are making our recovery longer,” Breed said. “You are making it more difficult for people to send their kids back to school.”

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