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Officials in much of the Bay Area announced on Monday that residents will once again be required to wear masks in indoor public places regardless of vaccination status amid a fuel spike in COVID-19 cases. by the highly transmissible Delta variant.
The move comes weeks after Los Angeles County became one of the first in the country to revert to an indoor mask warrant, and Monday’s ruling dramatically increases the number of people in California covered by such rules. .
Health workers 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 was causing an escalation in cases and hospitalizations and predicted that deaths would increase in the coming weeks as well.
Most Bay Area residents who were hospitalized were not vaccinated, but the elderly and those with underlying conditions who were fully vaccinated also succumb to the Delta variant, officers said. . They said an increase in hospitalizations and a new understanding that even the vaccinated can spread the virus led to the new tenure.
“It’s not the same virus we fought last year,” said Sonoma County health official Dr Sundari R. Mase, noting that it is 60% more infectious than previous variants.
“Frankly,” added Dr. Lisa Hernandez, control, Berkeley’s health official, “vaccines are currently preventing thousands of people from accessing Bay Area hospitals and morgues.”
The order will go into effect Tuesday at midnight and officials have said they want it to be temporary, although they have not provided a timeline. They also said they hoped the mask requirement would prevent the need for more drastic restrictions such as shutting down public spaces and businesses.
“The purpose of these orders is to avoid disrupting the ongoing operations of our businesses and the daily activities of residents,” said Dr. Lisa Santora, Marin County deputy health officer, at a conference. hurry.
Restaurants and bars for domestic service will remain open, but customers will be required to wear masks when not eating or drinking, officers said.
Dr Chris Farnitano, health official for Contra Costa, said four in five people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the county were not vaccinated.
In Marin County, where vaccination rates are high, about 1 in 7 to 8 people hospitalized with the virus were not vaccinated.
In Sonoma, 86% of people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 are not vaccinated. Two fully vaccinated people died in Sonoma. Both were over 90 years old and suffered from underlying health issues.
In San Francisco, 9.3 out of every 1,000 people get the disease when they are fully vaccinated. The number of unvaccinated people is 78.2 per 1,000 people.
On July 17, Los Angeles County began requiring all residents, regardless of immunization status, to wear masks again in indoor public spaces as the number of cases increased. Some local governments and business owners are going even further with stricter rules, such as requiring people to show proof of vaccination before being allowed into a place.
While Los Angeles County officials hope mask rules slow the new wave, it will take time to see if the measure is effective.
The current surge in cases is hitting those who are not vaccinated hard. Vaccinated people are highly protected against the coronavirus and, if they contract it, have less serious illnesses.
“The tragic reality is that almost everyone hospitalized and dying of COVID-19 is not vaccinated and these hospitalizations and deaths are, for the most part, preventable,” said Barbara Ferrer, Los Angeles County director of public health. , in a press release.
According to data compiled by 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 61.5% of Californians who have received at least one dose. Meanwhile, 61.9% of LA County residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 54.2% are fully vaccinated, according to data from The Times.
California last week urged everyone – even those fully vaccinated against COVID-19 – to wear masks indoors in public, joining a new national campaign to increase protection amid a continuing spike of cases. But the ultimate goal is to persuade those who haven’t been vaccinated to get vaccinated, which experts say is key to turning the tide.
From July 18 to 24, providers statewide administered an average of just over 64,000 vaccines per day, about 3,100 more daily doses than the week before.
An increasing number of institutions require proof of vaccination in the hopes of protecting both workers and the public.
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