(BCN) — San Francisco’s public well being director, who oversaw the town’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and fentanyl disaster, introduced his resignation on Thursday.
Dr. Grant Colfax is stepping down after spending practically six years as the town’s main well being official. The San Francisco Division of Public Well being didn’t present a cause for his resignation.
Deputy Director of Well being Dr. Naveena Bobba will turn into the appearing director after Colfax’s final day on Feb. 7.
“As Director of Health, Dr. Colfax contributed to saving lives of San Franciscans during one of our city’s most challenging times,” stated newly inaugurated Mayor Daniel Lurie in a press launch. “His leadership has enabled to our recovery, and I thank him for his service to our city.”
Dr. Grant Colfax, San Francisco Division of Public Well being
Colfax began serving because the director simply earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic started. By way of his management, San Francisco noticed a few of the lowest loss of life charges within the nation for a significant metropolis.
“Dr. Colfax led SFDPH as it implemented one of the most intensive and comprehensive responses in the country that kept San Francisco’s death rate to half the state rate and one-third the U.S. rate,” well being division officers wrote within the press launch.
Colfax was additionally tasked with tackling the emergence of fentanyl, a extremely potent artificial opioid that has killed extra folks in San Francisco than COVID-19 since 2020.
Preliminary information from the town’s Medical Examiner’s Workplace revealed that 589 folks died in 2024 as a consequence of unintentional drug overdose, with nearly all of them attributable to fentanyl poisoning.
That was a lower from 2023, when the town skilled its deadliest 12 months for overdoses with 806 unintentional deaths.
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The drop in overdose deaths has been attributed partly to Colfax main the implementation of substance use therapy applications, together with offering emergency shelter and medicine for these looking for therapy for dependancy.
“In the past 12 months substance use residential treatment admissions have increased 35% and the median wait time for a bed has decreased by 50%,” the division stated within the launch.
“Methadone starts and buprenorphine prescriptions are up 39% and 52% respectively in 2024 compared with 2023.”
Colfax additionally helped provoke preventative measures and therapy for HIV/AIDS in San Francisco throughout his tenure. In a 13-month span, greater than 55,000 folks had been vaccinated for monkeypox.
The town additionally noticed the bottom fee of HIV infections ever in 2023.
“We have accomplished much in the past six years,” Colfax stated within the launch. “There is no doubt that the dedicated, hard working and compassionate staff at DPH will continue to deliver for San Francisco.”
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