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SANTA CRUZ – Due to advances in mitigating community transmission, residents and visitors to Santa Cruz County are no longer required to wear face coverings indoors.
On Wednesday morning, the County Health Services Agency released a statement that the county had gone from substantial transmission (orange) to moderate transmission (yellow) on the Centers for Disease Control’s COVID-19 data tracker and Prevention. As a result of this improvement, the mandate for the mask drafted by health worker Dr Gail Newel on August 19 is now ineffective.
“This does not affect the face covering requirements issued by the State of California, including for unvaccinated individuals, school districts, businesses, places or organizations requiring cover. faces by policy, “added health officials in their statement. “Residents are urged to continue to adhere to these requirements by wearing a face covering with them at all times when in public. “
While masking is no longer mandatory indoors for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, it is still encouraged by the Health Services Agency.
“Face covers and vaccinations continue to be the best way to stop the spread of COVID-19 and protect you and your loved ones from infection,” the team says.
The CDC tracker shows that as of Wednesday, the county’s test positivity rate was 1.63%. That rate fell 0.73% in the last seven-day registration period. The drop is notable, as the county’s coronavirus data dashboard represents an active case count almost half of what it was a month ago.
Additionally, compared to the county’s representation of the total percentage of its population vaccinated on the local dashboard, the CDC’s dashboard provides the percentage of Santa Cruz County’s eligible population that has been fully vaccinated: 77, 4%.
In California, much of the state remains in either the substantial (orange) or high (red) transmission categories. All counties that have reached moderate (yellow) transmission categories are in the Bay or Central Coast region, according to the CDC map. The counties of Sierra and Modoc to the north are the only counties with a low transmission rate (blue).
The revocation of the Santa Cruz County mask mandate came just hours after the Monterey County Supervisory Board voted 3-2 in favor of instituting its own on Tuesday. A facial coverage requirement will only go into effect if the CDC labels Monterey County as having substantial (orange) or high (red) transmission, as reported by TV station KSBW.
Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, in addition to nonprofits that care for medically underserved populations, learned on Wednesday that they received grants from the Department of Health and Human Services. According to a note from Representative Jimmy Panetta, this funding will strengthen healthcare infrastructure for all and support COVID-19 response operations.
“This direct funding to our counties and health centers will help fight the spread of the pandemic, improve their accessibility and infrastructure, and support their employees and educate our underserved communities,” said Panetta.
By the numbers
Total number of cases: 19,298
Active cases: 471
Recoveries: 18,614
Deaths: 213
Current ICU hospitalizations: 2
Current hospitalizations: 10
Open beds in intensive care: 3
Negative tests: 193,874
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