Bay Area health officers Friday recommended that face masks be worn in public indoor places by everyone regardless of whether they’ve been vaccinated, walking back freedom that had been granted to the inoculated just a month ago amid alarm over a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases chiefly among the unvaccinated.
With cases of COVID-19 rising locally and increased circulation of the highly transmissible Delta variant, the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Sonoma, and the city of Berkeley recommend that everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks indoors in public places to ensure easy verification that all unvaccinated people are masked in those settings and as an extra precautionary measure for all.
Santa Clara County Assistant Health Officer Dr. Sarah Rudman said Friday that despite the Bay Area’s high vaccination rates, COVID-19 infection rates have tripled in the last three weeks, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus.
“We are seeing a similar rise in case rates across the Bay Area and California,” Rudman said. “That is why Santa Clara County is joining other bay area health departments making this recommendation.”
The move by Bay Area health officers comes a day after Sacramento County announced it would join Yolo County in a similar recommendation for everyone to wear masks indoors in public, and Los Angeles became the first county to make that an order starting Saturday.
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