Mask Mandates Set to Return in Several California Areas: What We Know

Mask mandates will be returning to several counties in California’s San Francisco Bay Area, starting next month.

The orders, which were handed down by individual counties, apply mainly to health care workers, although at least two Bay Area counties have extended the requirement to visitors and patients.

A similar mandate was handed down broadly across the Bay Area for the 2023–2024 fall-through-spring period.

Health officials in counties that have issued upcoming mask mandates said that the face coverings are designed to reduce the spread of COVID-19, influenza, and other respiratory viruses, harking back to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which mandates were widespread across much of the United States.

Where the Mandates Are Going Into Effect

Alameda County, which encompasses the city of Oakland, issued an order last month that requires staff at health care facilities to wear masks between Nov. 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025.

“The fall and winter of 2023-2024 saw substantial waves of RSV, flu and COVID19, and a similar pattern is expected this year,” the health order read, adding that such viruses “typically circulate and peak in Alameda County during the late fall and winter months.”

It warned that any violation of the order’s provision in Alameda County “constitutes an imminent threat and menace to public health, constitutes a public nuisance, and is punishable by fine, imprisonment, or both.”

The mandate only applies to staff, not patients or visitors.

Authorities in Contra Costa County issued a similar health order on Sept. 26, requiring health care staff to wear masks for the same time period with similar penalties. It also applies only to staff, not patients.

“The masking of personnel in these facilities is necessary to provide a layer of protection to patients during the respiratory season when risk of exposure is highest,” the county said.

Napa County issued an Oct. 1 health order that requires workers in health care facilities to wear masks. It doesn’t apply to visitors and patients.

“This Order requires each of these facilities implement and enforce a program requiring healthcare workers, regardless of vaccination status, to mask while in patient care areas,” the county wrote. “This order supersedes prior standing masking orders directed at healthcare workers.”

Going a step further, Santa Clara County, which includes San Jose, will require all people inside health care facilities, including visitors and patients, to wear masks from Nov. 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025. Exceptions will be made for children under age 2 and for people with medical issues that make it difficult for them to breathe in a mask or to remove a mask without assistance.

“Preventive measures like wearing a mask in crowded indoor places and staying home when you are sick continue to add layers of protection against respiratory viruses,” the county said in a news release issued last month. “Just like last year, the April 2023 health order will continue to require masks in all patient care areas of health care facilities starting November 1 and continuing through the winter respiratory virus period.”

Sonoma, Solano, Marin, and San Francisco counties have not indicated whether mask mandates will go into effect at health care facilities, according to an Epoch Times review of recent orders from the counties.

Outside California

Aside from the Bay Area, it appears no other counties anywhere else in the United States will issue similar mandates at health care facilities.

However, if data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show cases of COVID-19 rising again, other areas may reintroduce mask mandates. Last winter, New York City reimposed a mask mandate at its hospitals as officials cited a rise in cases of the virus.

Over the summer, mask mandates were implemented for a period of time by at least two U.S. health care providers. The Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation in Arizona said in early August that it would reinstate mask mandates at its facilities for at least two weeks, while Baystate Health in Massachusetts also implemented one in late August.

What the CDC’s Data Show

As of Oct. 10, the CDC’s wastewater tracking tool showed that COVID-19 levels across the United States were currently at “low” levels, down from the “very high” amounts reported in mid-August. In August, COVID-19-related deaths in the United States were near all-time lows, according to the CDC’s historical data on the virus.

COVID-19 is now the 10th-leading cause of death in the United States, according to a CDC report released over the summer. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the virus was the nation’s third-leading cause of death. It dropped to fourth in 2022.