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Bay Area health officials are now urging all residents to mask off when inside growing concerns about the highly infectious Delta variant.
Santa Clara County, joined by a coalition of six other Bay Area counties and the city of Berkeley, recommends all residents resume wearing indoor masks, regardless of their immunization status.
“As a precaution, people are recommended to wear masks indoors in environments such as grocery or retail stores, theaters and family entertainment centers, even if they are fully vaccinated as a layer of protection. additional for unvaccinated residents ”, the joint statement reads.
According to the California Department of Public Health, the Delta variant accounted for 43% of all positive test samples sequenced in the state. The variant is believed to be twice as transmissible as the original virus, said Dr Yvonne Maldonado, professor of global health and infectious diseases at Stanford University.
Fully vaccinated people are still well protected against infection or serious illness, even against the highly contagious Delta variant, she added.
“With what we know, we are still very confident in the vaccine,” said Maldonado. “If it’s a big increase (in cases), I’d be worried, but people who have been vaccinated are pretty safe.”
But wearing a mask indoors could be “an added precaution” for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, as it would help reduce the risk of contracting and transmitting the virus, local officials said. health.
“Unvaccinated people are really the driving force here,” said Maldonado. “They affect everyone.
The move came a day after Los Angeles County announced it would reinstate an indoors mask warrant amid an increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. Sacramento, Fresno and Yolo counties also issued a mask recommendation this week, suggesting the Bay Area would be next.
The number of COVID-19 cases is also increasing locally, according to the county dashboard. Santa Clara County now has an average of 76 new cases per day. The daily case rate is now 3.9 per 100,000.
Some public health experts told the San José Spotlight that it was only a matter of time before the region experienced an outbreak due to the new variant.
The Delta variant is responsible for a total of 99 positive infections in the county as of July 15.
In Santa Clara County, 76.5% of eligible residents, or 1.3 million people, are fully immunized, one of the highest rates in the state.
The California Department of Public Health and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintain that vaccinated people do not need to cover their faces indoors, again at odds with recommendations local.
Companies are also encouraged to adopt universal mask requirements to protect their workers and other customers.
Maldonado said the counties mask recommendation doesn’t surprise her with the rate of new cases, but she doesn’t think the Bay Area will impose a mask warrant anytime soon. Friday’s announcement was only a recommendation.
“That doesn’t mean we have to stop going out,” said Maldonado. “We just need to be more careful inside.”
Public health officials said they would reconsider the recommendation in the coming weeks based on transmission rates, hospitalizations and deaths.
Regardless of the recommendations, masks are always required in medical facilities, on public transport, in schools, prisons and homeless shelters. Unvaccinated workers should wear masks when working indoors.
Click here to find the walk-in vaccination clinics available in San José.
Contact Tran Nguyen at [email protected] or follow @nguyenntrann on Twitter.
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