Health officers urge masks for all
Recommendation for everyone indoors comes as COVID-19 cases rise among unvaccinated people
Amid a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases among the unvaccinated, eight Bay Area health officers made a united stand Friday and urged everyone to wear face masks while in public places indoors regardless of whether they’ve gotten their shots, walking back some face-covering freedom granted to the inoculated just a month ago.
With increased circulation of the highly transmissible delta virus variant, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Sonoma counties and the city of Berkeley made the recommendation to ensure easy verification that all unvaccinated people are wearing
masks and as an extra precaution 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 in the county have tripled in the last three weeks, driven by the highly contagious delta variant.
“We are seeing a similar rise in case rates across the Bay Area and California,” Rudman said.
Miguel Gandarilla, of Gilroy, was grabbing a bite Friday without a mask at The Old Wagon Saloon & Grill in downtown San Jose but said masking up inside wouldn’t be a problem for him, even though he’s fully vaccinated.
“I’m the son of a retired nurse, so I would rather err on the side of caution,” Gandarilla said. “I would have no problem if they made it mandatory.”
Cheryl Allison, 47, a bus driver from Antioch who has recovered from COVID-19 and knew someone who died from it, also is happy to comply.
“People are still getting infected even with the vaccine shot,” said Allison, who was wearing a mask. “If everybody takes them off too fast, we’re back to square one.”
Dawn Behie, 46, of Riverbank, is vaccinated. She wore a mask Friday as she played FunHouse at the Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda and is uncomfortable trusting that unmasked people are immunized.
“It’s based on the honor system,” she said, “and people as a whole have no honor.”
The move by Bay Area health officers comes a day after Sacramento and Fresno counties announced they would join Yolo County in a similar recommendation for everyone to wear masks indoors in public; Los Angeles became the first county to make that an order again starting at 11:59 p.m. today. The recommendations now cover half the population of California.
Rudman said the Bay Area health officers did not yet see a need to reimpose a mask requirement as Los Angeles did, given the high vaccination rates in the region. The recommendation, she said, would help provide additional protection for those who remain unvaccinated, including children under age 12 who aren’t yet eligible, and time for those just getting vaccinated now.
The most widely used vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna require a two-dose regimen three to four weeks apart, while the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is a single dose. A person is considered fully immunized two weeks after the final dose, so those just receiving their first Moderna shot won’t be protected for six weeks.
The health officers are urging businesses to adopt universal masking requirements for customers entering indoor areas of their businesses to provide better protection to their employees and customers. Workplaces must comply with Cal/OSHA workplace safety requirements, and fully vaccinated employees are encouraged to wear masks indoors if their employer has not confirmed the vaccination status of those around them.
Matthew Santo, one of the managers at downtown San Jose restaurant Olla Cocina, who is fully vaccinated, said he’s happy to go along.
“We all survived last time, we’ll survive this time,” Santo said. “It’s just about being a community I guess, following the rules.”
State public health orders continue to require the unvaccinated to wear face masks in indoor public places, including stores, malls, movie theaters, museums, places of worship and workplaces.
Masks remain optional for everyone outdoors, where air circulation makes transmission of the virus much less likely.
The mask recommendation comes a month after California adopted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s mid-May guidance that those who are vaccinated may go without masks in most indoor places, with exceptions for public transportation, schools, health care, correctional and shelter facilities.
But surging COVID-19 cases have led a number of health experts to beg the CDC to reconsider.
“Public health officials made a mistake by removing behavioral measures before achieving enough vaccination for herd immunity vs. the more contagious Delta,” Dr. Michael Lin, an associate professor of neurobiology and bioengineering at Stanford University, said July 10 on Twitter.
In a White House briefing Friday on the COVID-19 pandemic, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky did not address the mask guidance but urged more Americans to get vaccinated.
Though 48.3% of all U.S. residents and 56.5% of those 12 and older who are eligible are fully vaccinated, the seven-day average of new cases is up 69.3%, the sevenday average of hospitalizations is up 35.8%, and the seven-day average of deaths from the virus is up 26.3% from the previous week.
“There is a clear message that is coming through: This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Walensky said, adding that 97% of those hospitalized now have not gotten their shots. “We are seeing outbreaks of cases in parts of the country that have low vaccination coverage, because unvaccinated people are at risk.”
In California, 0.069% of COVID-19 cases have been in fully vaccinated people.
Solano and Napa are the only Bay Area counties that didn’t join in the Bay Area health officers’ recommendation.
“We continue to monitor but at this juncture, the numbers are not cause for alarm,” said Dr. Karen Relucio, Napa County’s public health officer. “Individuals who are not required to wear masks can always choose to do so.”
Sharyn Amoroso, of Walnut Creek, sighed hearing she’ll have to wear a face mask again indoors.
“It’s just unfortunate,” she said, “that everyone has to suffer.”