SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Bay Area sports bars are expecting the crowds on Saturday when the San Francisco 49ers take on the Green Bay Packers in this next round of the NFL playoffs.
Already, many watch parties are planned across the city and some venues are converting their spaces to reduce chances of COVID transmission.
Despite precautions, some doctors expect to inevitably see a slight rise in cases.
San Francisco 49ers fans hope to continue similar celebrations after Saturday’s playoff game against the Green Bay Packers.
Fans at District Six in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood gathered to watch the 49ers beat the Cowboys last weekend.
Event organizers expect to see more fans this time around.
District Six Director Anthony Schlender says they sold tickets for this weekend’s watch party to control and limit capacity due to the rise in COVID cases.
Schlander’s usually planning events all across the city but since the pandemic, he’s pivoted to finding creative outdoor event spaces like District Six where it’s safer to get together.
However, many sports bars across the city and Bay Area don’t have the same space or capabilities, so they’ll likely look like this.
Indoors.
While covid cases are going down again, Infectious Disease Specialist at UCSF Dr. Peter Chin-Hong says he’s still concerned about gatherings.
Chin-Hong says we’ll likely see that decline slow as more people get together to cheer on their teams.
“It may mean that our descent from our peak may be slower because you’d have mini spikes after these stacked events, the watch parties, then the Super Bowl, and each time you get a little higher,” Chin-Hong said. “I think we are on the way down but again how fast we go down all depends on our behaviors because again there’s a lot of circulating virus out there.”