Certainly, the effectiveness of masks needs to be further assessed to determine how best to keep other possible deadly airborne viruses from spreading in the future. Amy Graff is the news editor for SFGATE. Compared with its ancestors, the latest Omicron subvariant, BA.5, may have an enhanced ability to create a numerous copies of the coronavirus once it gets into human cells. Some California counties including eight in the Bay Area and some in Los Angeles and Sacramento implemented new indoor mask mandates in response. Can I still get Beyonc tickets? To learn more about Los Angeles County Public Health, please visit www.publichealth .lacounty.gov, and follow LA County Public Health on social media at twitter.com/lacounty.gov, and follow LA County Public Health on social media at twitter.com/lapublichealth, facebook.com/lapublichealth, instagram.com/lapublichealth and youtube.com/lapublichealth. San Luis Obispo, CA County of San Luis Obispo Health Officer Dr. Penny Borenstein announced today that the local Health Officer Order requiring masking in all indoor public places will be lifted next Wednesday, Feb. 16 in alignment with state masking policy. Given both the increases in hospitalizations and the lack of certainty in the winter trajectory for COVID-19, continuing some common-sense mitigation strategies that we know work to limit transmission and illness, including masking and being up to date on vaccines and boosters, remains a very sensible approach, Ferrer said. The board had filed the petition only eight days before the court ruled, according to the Voice of OC. We've received your submission. Still, only 5.6% of inpatient beds in the county were occupied by COVID patients. Health experts largely agree that vaccines are a more effective intervention than masks. According to federal estimates, BA.5 accounted for 65% of the nations coronavirus cases over the weeklong period ending Saturday, an astonishing climb from a month ago, when it made up 17% of cases. 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Why wait to implement a simple measure that could temper the surge, reduce deaths, long Covid, hospitalizations, & even more mutations? the person argued. The state of California's indoor mask mandate, which was issued on Dec. Orange County a non-mask-mandate county had a very similar outcome to neighboring Los Angeles County, the first California county to bring back indoor masking in response to delta. 5:40 pm Diana Lambert The California Supreme Court wasted little time denying a petition from the Orange County Board of Education today that asked the court to overturn the states mask mandate. For counties in the worst category on that scale, high, the CDC recommends indoor public masking. 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COVID-19 Sector Protocols, Best Practices, COVID-19 Vaccine Dashboard, COVID-19 Surveillance Interactive Dashboard, Recovery Dashboard, and additional actions you can take to protect yourself, your family and your community are on the Public Health website www.publichealth.lacounty.gov. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Woody Harrelsons vax jab shows the Left still cant take a joke over COVID, Energy Dept COVID view counts, DEI is poisonous and other commentary, Lessons of the mask mandates, Haley dodges on Trump and other commentary, Its insane that colleges still mandate vaccines. Pedestrians wearing face masks walk down Market street in San Francisco, Calif. on August 5, 2021. Were caring for more kids than we have beds for, Dr. James Schneider, head of the pediatric intensive care unit at Long Island Jewish Hospital, said at the time. The latest maps and charts on the spread of COVID-19 in Los Angeles County, including cases, deaths, closures and restrictions. Some experts, though, have noted that Alameda Countys mask mandate was the only time a lone county in the San Francisco Bay Area has issued a mask order without other major counties doing so as well. Click here to open it in a new window. While requiring masks in schools is an excellent way to prevent transmission among children, now is a great time to plan on vaccinating your children who are 12 and older against COVID-19 before the school year starts. The L.A. County indoor masking requirements for everyone will be effective Saturday, July 17 at 11:59 p.m. Download for iOS or Android. "We are able to take this next major step of removing the universal indoor mask requirement because we have laid a strong foundation in good public health protections -- especially vaccines and boosters -- and know we can reduce severe illness, hospitalizations and deaths," Contra Costa County Health Officer Dr. Ori Tzvieli said. A study recently published by the Cochrane, a respected British nonprofit that conducts reviews of health care data, concluded there was no evidence that mask mandates were effective contrary to numerous other studies. 1 dead, 1 hurt after Santa Rosa high school stabbing, police say, How safe is your neighborhood? Newsom also announced that starting Tuesday, March 1, masks will no longer be required but will be highly recommended for unvaccinated individuals in most indoor settings. California will end its indoor masking requirement for vaccinated people next week but masks still are the rule for schoolchildren, state health officials announced Los Angeles County Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer explained the county's indoor masking rule will remain in place until the county's virus-transmission rate falls to the "moderate" level, as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and stays there for two weeks. According to the CDC's map, four Bay Area counties San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano are classified as areas of "high" transmission, and the other five Santa Clara, San Mateo, Marin, Sonoma and Napa are classified as areas of "substantial" transmission. 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By contrast, an order from L.A. County would instantly affect 10 million residents, give or take the roughly 600,000 residents of Long Beach and Pasadena. California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly, in announcing the mandate on Monday, said it would affect about 50% of Californians who arent currently under a county masking order. Tracking the proliferation of the Delta variant is a priority because the Delta variant is more easily spread between people more than other variants of concern. Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). A lot of people continue to refuse to get the vaccine for various reasons. The Los Angeles County Health Officer Order will be modified to require masking for everyone while indoors, regardless of vaccination status, as Los Angeles County sees more than a seven-times increase in new cases since the June 15 reopening. However, strong conclusions can be drawn regardingvaccine efficacy against hospitalization. The mandate, which went into effect in mid-July 2020, imposed a more than $600 fine to those who didn't follow mask rules. A student died after being stabbed during a fight at a Santa Rosa high school on Wednesday morning, authorities said. Importantly, though, masks would not be required for those using outdoor spaces, as the risk of transmission in those settings is significantly lower than it is indoors. Californias indoor mask mandate ends Wednesday, but teachers and students must keep masking up according to state guidelines. A year ago on July 17, 2021 the county reissued a universal mask mandate in response to the Delta variant, which lasted through March 4. Taking preventative measures is especially important now as BA.4 and especially BA.5 can reinfect even those who recently contracted an earlier Omicron subvariant. Were California county mask mandates effective against delta? To hit the high designation, the countys weekly case rate would have to be at least 200 per 100,000 residents and its hospital admissions reach more than 10 per 100,000 residents. Based on this CDC map, most counties in Central California have high COVID-19 community levels - all of the ones shaded Orange. Because Solano's lagging vaccination rate compared with the rest of the region makes it a poor "control group" to evaluate mask mandates and it's clear that vaccination played a large role in dictating the trajectory of the delta wave it's worth looking to counties outside the Bay Area. The state extended the mask mandate in January 2022 before announcing earlier in the month that it will expire after 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday. Before anyone draws any sweeping conclusions from this data, it's worth pointing out that mask mandates do not always equate to universal masking, and a lack of mask mandates does not mean that no one in a county is wearing masks voluntarily. http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/Coronavirus/, https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/Immunization/ncov2019.aspx, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019- ncov/index.html, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index-sp.html, https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus, Los Angeles County (excl. All Federal employees, onsite contractors, and visitors, regardless of vaccination status, must wear a high-quality mask inside of Federal buildings in areas Here's what the data says. The county wanted to hit three key metrics before changing the mandate and Dr. Sara Cody, the county's public health officer, says next week looks to be the time we will lift the indoor mask mandate. Eric did his undergrad at Pomona College, where he majored in politics and minored in economics. Email: eric.ting@sfgate.com. We need an additional layer of protection, and this is the additional layer.. That may have seemed like a technical footnote to many people, if they were paying attention at all. According to the governor's office, unvaccinated individuals will still be required to wear masks in indoor public settings. The new rule applies to schools and child care facilities. Currently, there are no counties in the San Francisco Bay Area that have converted their recommendations into mandates, a slight surprise given the fact that the region has often been more aggressive than the rest of the state. The mask and distancing mandates and closures all started before vaccines were available. Colorado A Settlement: San Mateo County has agreed to pay $4.5 million to the family California officials are expected to announce a timeline for relaxing their own school mask mandate. 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