Bay Area: Face coverings are advised again in seven counties
Health officials in seven Bay Area counties — Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Sonoma — on Friday urged vaccinated people to wear masks again indoors to prevent the spread of the highly infectious delta variant of the coronavirus.
The officials said that while fully vaccinated people are well protected from developing serious illness, asking everyone to wear masks indoors will extend protection to all and make it easier to verify that unvaccinated people are masking up.
Napa and Solano counties did not join other Bay Area counties in recommending universal indoor masking.
San Francisco Health Officer Dr. Susan Philip said officials are monitoring a rise in hospitalizations as the delta variant spreads. Unvaccinated people are at particular risk, city officials have said.
“This recommendation is really our way to communicate
to the public that we’d like them to put masks back on because we want to buy more time” to understand how the delta variant will affect communities, Philip said. “We want the increase in cases to get blunted.”
The announcement follows Thursday’s declaration in Los Angeles that masks will be required indoors starting Sunday for all people regardless of vaccine status.
Los Angeles is the only California county to reinstate a mask mandate since the state dropped the requirement for vaccinated people on June 15.
Yolo and Sacramento counties have also recommended that vaccinated people mask up again.
Some Bay Area residents seemed willing to wear masks again. In many cases, they never stopped.
“If I have to wear a mask again inside, I’m not going to throw a temper tantrum,” said Ronnie Casey, standing in the marbled hallway of Oakland’s Civic Center post office, where he had come to retrieve a package on Friday afternoon.
Casey, 42, said he had been reading up on last century’s pandemic of Spanish flu — and the history lesson left him pessimistic about the prospect of going maskless anytime soon.
“They lift restrictions and then people start to get sick again,” Casey said as a post office customer without a mask walked by on her way to the counter. “It’s a song and dance, off and on.”
Donald Barks, coowner of Ancient Ways, a metaphysical shop in Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood that sells candles, jewelry and oils, also embraced the new recommendations.
“I thought relaxing the mask requirement was a little premature,” Barks said. The day officials announced lifting the mask mandate, a sign went up on the front door of the shop asking that customers wear masks inside, whether they’ve been vaccinated or not.
A sharp rise in cases and hospitalizations, particularly among unvaccinated people, has heightened concerns about the highly transmissible delta variant, now the dominant strain in California. In San Francisco, the number of people hospitalized with COVID19 was slowly rising, with 21 people under care as of Monday, up from nine patients in early June. Alameda County reported 70 patients with the virus as of Wednesday, representing a steady rise since mid June.
Philip, San Francisco’s
“The delta variant is spreading quickly, and everyone should take action to protect themselves and others.” Alameda County Health Officer Dr. Nicholas Moss
health officer, said that though hospitalizations may seem low, they could forecast a wave of more serious illnesses.
“That may seem like a small number, but we know hospitalizations lag behind the numbers,” Philip said. “We don’t want to wait until hospitals are at a concerning point.”
The delta variant made up 43% of all specimens analyzed in California. Nationwide, delta variants are causing 59% of new infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The delta variant is spreading quickly, and everyone should take action to protect themselves and others against
this potentially deadly virus,” Alameda County Health Officer Dr. Nicholas Moss said.
Earlier this month, the California Capitol began requiring people to wear masks again after nine legislative staffers — including four fully vaccinated people — tested positive for the virus.
California schools are also requiring K12 students to mask up indoors and on school buses, even if they are vaccinated — in contrast to federal guidelines, which require only those who are not vaccinated to wear masks.
Gov. Gavin Newsom lifted most pandemic restrictions, including those requiring indoor masks for vaccinated people on June 15, saying California was “roaring back ... because we have tamed this virus.”
A spokesman for Newsom declined to comment about county health officers reinstating mask recommendations and, in the case of Los Angeles County, a mandate. Newsom’s spokesman referred to a Department of Public Health statement, which urged Californians to get vaccinated and expressed support for “the ability of local health jurisdictions to enact stricter local public health guidance that is tailored to the situation in their communities.”
Christina Hatcher, health education specialist for the public health division of Solano County — one of the two Bay Area counties that did not issue recommendation for vaccinated people to mask indoors — said that the county has seen an increase in cases since the Fourth of July holiday, mostly due to younger people with lower vaccination rates.
“As we ... and the state monitor the spread of the delta variant in our community, we will continue to align with state recommendations,” she told The Chronicle earlier this week. “We are following emerging data and science, and we will adjust our approach as needed.”
Dr. Karen Relucio, public health officer for Napa County, which also did not join the other Bay Area counties in adopting indoor mask recommendations for vaccinated people, attributed rising cases to the Fourth of July and reopening. She told the Chronicle earlier this week that while the county is worried about rising case rates, particularly among unvaccinated people, hospitalizations are still low.
Therefore the county will “not be implementing masking guidance that is more restrictive than state guidance,” she said.