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All Bay Area counties except one recommend masking indoors as COVID cases continue to rise locally and across the country due to the highly contagious delta variant.
Solano County is sticking to a policy that conforms to state guidelines: no masks outdoors for anyone and none indoors for fully vaccinated people, with a few exceptions, such as health facilities. .
“The cases have been happening in the past two weeks due to the behavior on July 4 – barbecues, gatherings in people’s gardens,” said Dr Bela Matyas, Solano County public health official. “So a masking warrant for the interiors of stores, retail businesses and restaurants won’t make any difference. That’s not where it gets transmitted. It gets into people’s homes.”
Solano County Health Officer Dr Bela Matayas explains why North Bay County is not recommending masks in indoor public places while the rest of the Bay Area counties are in the midst of an increase cases due to the delta variant.
Meanwhile, Napa County joined the other seven Bay Area counties on Monday in strongly recommending masking in indoor public places to slow the spread of the delta variant. The next step could be the return of a mask warrant.
Los Angeles County is already enforcing masking after an increase in the number of cases in southern California.
UCSF’s Dr George Rutherford doesn’t see the Bay Area going that far, although he sees the value of masking.
Rutherford said the masks help slow transmission among unvaccinated people and limit the spillover of breakthrough cases from unvaccinated people.
But on the horizon comes the next curve of COVID – the lambda variant, designated as a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organization last month.
Rutherford points out that when vaccines receive full FDA approval, as planned this summer, it will open the door to mandatory vaccinations for businesses, universities and the military.
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