Starting today, California is requiring everyone from toddlers on up to wear face masks in all indoor public settings regardless of vaccination against COVID-19, but the state is cutting breaks in some cases to at a few Bay Area counties for those who have had the shots.
In San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa counties, which already had local orders in place that allowed masks to come off indoors in certain controlled settings with a small, stable group of fully vaccinated people like workspaces and gyms, those local rules remain in place.
“This refinement acknowledges the hard work of the people of San Francisco throughout the pandemic, including the ways in which we have maintained reasonable protections heading into the holiday season,” San Francisco’s Department of Public Health said in a statement late Tuesday.
Alameda County Department of Public Health public information manager Neetu Balram added that county residents “will not experience any differences in policy.”
Contra Costa County said because of its local rule, “the new statewide masking mandate doesn’t affect us and we will retain limited exceptions for certain indoor settings not open to the general public such as offices and gyms where everyone is vaccinated.”
Marin County, however, which had lifted its local indoor mask mandate Nov. 2 after meeting criteria established across several Bay Area counties that took into account local case rates, hospitalizations, and vaccination rates, said the state’s indoor mask requirement for all is in effect now.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a statewide requirement for everyone to wear face coverings in indoor public settings in June 2020. And although the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in May that the vaccinated no longer needed to mask up in most indoor public settings, with the exception of public transit, schools, shelters, prisons and jails and health care facilities, California kept its rule in place through June 15 of this year.
Since California lifted the statewide masks-for-all order as part of a broader ending of most pandemic restrictions aimed at reopening the economy, several counties in October reinstated the requirement citing rising cases and concerns about worsening outbreaks over the winter.
The California Department of Public Health announced Monday that face masks are again required in all indoor public settings regardless of vaccination status from Dec. 15, 2021 through Jan. 15, 2022, and recommended surgical masks or higher-level N-95 respirators. The only exceptions are children under age 2, people with medical or mental health conditions that would be worsened by the masks, the hearing impaired or others for whom it would pose a risk at work.
State health officials said COVID-19 cases have increased 47% and hospitalizations 14% since Thanksgiving, as the highly contagious delta variant of the virus continues to spread and the even more transmissible omicron variant gains a foothold.
The California Department of Public Health on Tuesday however clarified that for local health jurisdictions that had pre-existing masking requirements for indoor public settings in effect before Dec. 13, “those local health orders continue to apply.” The department would not say which jurisdictions those are.
The exceptions drew some sarcasm on Twitter from Jonathan Zachreson of Roseville, a parent activist who has criticized the state’s school closures and masks requirements during the pandemic, who noted Newsom’s ties to “his home town” of San Francisco, where he once served as mayor.
“None of it makes sense,” Zachreson said.
Contra Costa County Health Officer Dr. Chris Farnitano said that while local cases have gone up since Thanksgiving, the county has one of the highest vaccination rates in the state and hospitalizations are far below levels seen during the past summer, as well as those in many other counties.
“The limited exceptions we made are for very low-risk scenarios where everyone is vaccinated,” Farnitano said. “Our community already understands and is following these rules and it would be confusing to change them for just one month.”
Balram said face masks, along with vaccination, “are one of the best tools we have to prevent spreading COVID-19 to family, friends, and community members,” but cautioned the exceptions may be subject to change.
“We will continue to monitor emerging evidence and the local epidemic,” Balram said, “to determine if changes to local mandates will be needed.”
