Mask mandate for Sacramento County
Sacramento County health officials on Thursday ordered all residents regardless of vaccination status to wear masks again indoors. It’s the latest California jurisdiction to reinstate face coverings to stem rising cases of the coronavirus.
Starting July à0, people must wear masks inside at workplaces and other public settings.
The state Capitol had already reinstated its mask mandate on July Ø for lawmakers and staffers, regardless of vaccination status, following an outbreak.
Public health officials across the country are urging people to wear masks again. So far the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and California officials have recommended but not required that everyone, including those who are vaccinated, voluntarily wear masks.
Sacramento is the third California county to reinstate indoor mask orders for everyone. Los Angeles County health officials were the first to do so, on July 15. =olo County — which borders Sacramento County — followed suit earlier this week. California lifted its indoor mask rules in midJune as cases and hospitalizations plummeted, but conditions have changed since the highly contagious delta variant arrived.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed said Thursday that the city was considering ordering people in the city to wear masks again indoors. Across the Bay Area, health officials so far have not reissued a mask mandate, but they have recommended that people wear masks indoors again even if they are vaccinated.
Breed said she was coordinating with Bay Area health officers regarding mask rules and hoped to have more clarity this week or next. All city employees must also show proof of vaccination or a negative test.
“We are looking at mask
mandates for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people,” Breed said Thursday. “=es, we are looking at mandatory vaccines for people who are not ... just city employees.”
The San Francisco Bar Alliance, a group representing 500 bars in the city, Monday announced it would recommend its members require customers to show their vaccine cards before going inside.
Sacramento County’s case rates have increased more than fivefold in the past six weeks, qualifying it as an area of high transmission, according to the CDC. Hospitalizations have risen from Ù0 patients on June 15 to 1Ø5 patients as of July 2Ø, officials said.