Officials in a large swath of the Bay Area announced Monday that residents will again need to wear masks in indoor public settings regardless of vaccination status amid a surge in COVID-19 cases fueled by the highly transmissible Delta variant.
The move comes several weeks after Los Angeles County became one of the first in the nation to return to an indoor mask mandate, and Monday’s move greatly expands the number of people in California covered by such rules.
Health officers from Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Sonoma counties and the city of Berkeley made the joint announcement Monday afternoon. They said the Delta variant is causing cases and hospitalizations to escalate and predicted that deaths also will rise in the coming weeks.
Most Bay Area residents who have been hospitalized were unvaccinated, but the elderly and people with underlying conditions who were fully vaccinated also are succumbing to the Delta variant, the officers said. They said a rise in hospitalizations and a new understanding that even the vaccinated may spread the virus led to the new mandate.
“This is not the same virus we were combatting last year,” said Sonoma County Health Officer Dr. Sundari R. Mase, noting that it is 60% more infectious than previous variants.
“Quite frankly,” added Dr Lisa Hernandez, check, Berkeley’s health officer, “vaccines are keeping thousands out of Bay Area hospitals and morgues right now.”
The order will go into effect on Tuesday at midnight and officials said they intended it to be temporary, although they did not provide a timeline. They also said they hoped requiring masks would preempt the need for more drastic restrictions such as closures of public spaces and businesses.
“The goal of these orders is to avoid disrupting our businesses’ continued operations and residents’ everyday activities,” Dr. Lisa Santora, deputy health officer for Marin County, said at a press conference.
Restaurants and bars for indoor service will remain open, but patrons will have to wear masks when they are not eating or drinking, the officers said.
Dr. Chris Farnitano, Contra Costa’s health officer, said four out of five people hospitalized for COVID-19 in the county have been unvaccinated.
In Marin County, where vaccinations rates are high, about 1 out of 7 to 8 people hospitalized for the virus were unvaccinated.
In Sonoma, 86% of those in the hospital now for COVID-19 are unvaccinated. Two fully vacinated individuals have died in Sonoma. Both were over the age of 90 and had underlying health ailments.
In San Francisco, 9.3 people out of every 1,000 people are contracting the disease even though they are fully vaccinated. The number for the unvaccinated is at 78.2 for every 1,000 people.
On July 17, Los Angeles County started requiring all residents, regardless of vaccination status, to again wear masks in indoor public spaces as case counts ticked upward. Some local governments and business owners are going a step further with more stringent rules such as requiring people to show proof of vaccination before being allowed to enter a place.
While Los Angeles County officials are hoping the mask rules will slow the new surge, it will take time to know if the measure is effective.
The current surge in cases is hitting those who are unvaccinated hard. People who are vaccinated are protected strongly against the coronavirus and, if they do contract it, have less serious illnesses.
“The tragic reality is that almost every single person hospitalized and dying from COVID-19 is unvaccinated and these hospitalizations and deaths are, for the most part, preventable,” Barbara Ferrer, the Los Angeles County public health director, said in a statement.
According to data compiled by the The Times, 76.7% of San Francisco County residents have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 70.5% are fully vaccinated — well above the 61.5% of Californians who have received at least one dose. Meanwhile, 61.9% of L.A. County residents have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 54.2% are fully vaccinated, according to Times data.
Last week, California urged everyone — even those fully vaccinated against COVID-19 — to wear masks indoors while in public, joining a renewed national push to increase protection amid an ongoing spike in cases. But the ultimate goal is to persuade those who have not been vaccinated to get their shots, which experts say is vital to reversing the surge.
From July 18 to 24, providers throughout the state administered an average of just more than 64,000 vaccines a day — about 3,100 more daily doses than the week before.
An increasing number of institutions are requiring proof of vaccination in hopes of protecting both workers and the public.