California first issued its mask requirements nearly a year ago — on June 18. | AP Photo/Hector Amezcua, Pool
California will not lift its mask mandate to align with new federal recommendations until after June 15, the target date for the state to fully reopen businesses, state health officials said Monday.
“This four-week week period will give Californians time to prepare for this change while we continue the relentless focus to provide vaccines,” Health and Human Service Secretary Mark Ghaly said.
This announcement makes California, along with New Jersey, one of the final holdouts to revise its mask policy after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention abruptly announced Thursday that fully vaccinated people can go without masks in most situations. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday said vaccinated New Yorkers will no longer be required to wear masks or face coverings in most settings beginning Wednesday.
Gov. Gavin. Newsom at a news conference Friday said the state was reviewing its mask policies but underscored that questions remain about enforcement, guidance for schools and what happens if businesses decide to continue requiring masks. “There’s a whole host of complexities that we all have to work through,” he said.
California first issued its mask requirements nearly a year ago — on June 18. Under the most recent update, the state allowed fully vaccinated people to be maskless outdoors except in crowded events such as concerts, festivals and sporting events, and to socialize indoors without masks with other fully vaccinated people.
Bob Wachter, chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, agreed with California’s decision to delay the change. “Good call — simply too much virus & too many unvaxxed folks who won’t [wear] masks for no-mask indoor spaces to be safe now,” he said on Twitter.
