SAN FRANCISCO– San Francisco’s public health director, who oversaw the city’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and fentanyl crisis, announced his resignation Thursday.
Dr. Grant Colfax is leaving office after spending nearly six years as the city’s top health official. The San Francisco Department of Public Health did not provide a reason for his resignation.
Deputy Health Director Dr. Naveena Bobba will become interim director after Colfax’s last day on February 7.
“As health director, Dr. Colfax helped save the lives of San Franciscans during one of our city’s most challenging times,” newly inaugurated Mayor Daniel Lurie said in a press release. “His leadership enabled our recovery, and I thank him for his service to our city.”
Colfax began serving as director just before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Thanks to his leadership, San Francisco experienced one of the lowest death rates in the country for a major city.
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“Dr. Colfax led the SFDPH as it implemented one of the most intensive and comprehensive responses in the country, which helped keep San Francisco’s death rate at half the state rate and at one-third the U.S. rate,” Department of Health officials wrote in the press release.
Colfax has also been tasked with combating the emergence of fentanyl, a highly potent synthetic opioid that has killed more people in San Francisco than COVID-19 since 2020.
Preliminary data from the city medical examiner’s office found that 589 people died in 2024 from accidental drug overdoses, with the majority caused by fentanyl poisoning.
That’s a decrease from 2023, when the city experienced its deadliest year for overdoses, with 806 accidental deaths.
The decline in overdose deaths has been attributed in part to Colfax leading the implementation of drug treatment programs, including providing emergency shelter and medication to those seeking drug treatment.
“Over the past 12 months, admissions to residential drug treatment have increased by 35% and the median wait time for a bed has decreased by 50%,” the ministry said in the release. “Methadone initiations and buprenorphine prescriptions are up 39% and 52%, respectively, in 2024 compared to 2023.”
Colfax also helped pioneer HIV/AIDS preventative measures and treatments in San Francisco during his tenure. In 13 months, more than 55,000 people were vaccinated against monkeypox.
The city also saw the lowest HIV infection rate ever recorded in 2023.
“We have accomplished a lot over the past six years,” Colfax said in the release. “There is no doubt that DPH’s dedicated, hard-working and compassionate staff will continue to deliver in San Francisco. »
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