A county in the northern part of California’s San Francisco Bay Area announced it is reinstating its mask mandate for health care workers, reversing a previous plan not to issue the order.
Sonoma County’s health officer on Tuesday announced that the mask order, which goes into effect from Nov. 18 until April 30 of next year, was implemented “given the rising risk of respiratory virus-related illnesses, such as COVID and flu.”
The order applies to health care workers in facilities “regardless of vaccination status” until the order ends.
“Additionally, all businesses and governmental entities with health care delivery facilities must enforce this face mask requirement for all personnel entering patient care areas within the health care delivery facility,” it added.
Patients and visitors, however, are not subject to the countywide mandate.
The order will apply to staff at health care facilities that include hospitals, clinics, surgery centers, infusion centers, dialysis centers, skilled nursing facilities, some long-term care facilities with nursing care, and other facilities with indoor patient care.
“Each year, we see that higher rates of influenza, COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses that can cause severe respiratory infections occur between late fall and spring,” Dr. Karen Smith, Sonoma County’s interim health officer, said in a statement. “Influenza and other seasonal respiratory viruses infect tens of millions in the United States each year and can result in serious medical outcomes, including hospitalizations and death.”
Currently, data provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that as of Nov. 7, COVID-19 levels in California are “minimal,” the lowest occurrence.
But Smith said that there is a “likelihood of another” late fall and winter COVID-19 increase, which has been seen in previous winters since 2020.
According to an Epoch Times review of recent health orders across the United States, California’s Bay Area counties appear to be the first jurisdictions to implement mandatory masking for health care staff in facilities in the United States.
Other than Sonoma, Bay Area counties with mask requirements for employees include San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Napa, and San Mateo. But Santa Clara County, which includes San Jose, and San Mateo County also require visitors and patients in those health care facilities to wear masks.
Those mandates, which were announced weeks or months ago, run from Nov. 1, 2024, until March 31, 2025. A similar mandate was imposed across the Bay Area during the 2023–2024 winter and early spring months.
“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,” Santa Clara County officials said in a statement in September. Santa Clara is considered the hub of Silicon Valley, including the city of San Jose, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Palo Alto, and more.
Authorities in Contra Costa County said on Sept. 26 that “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.”
In October, New York City’s Department of Health wrote in a post on X that residents should wear masks ahead of the COVID-19 and flu season, suggesting that people use respirator-style masks including KN95s, KF94s, or N95s.
During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, health care systems, governments, and businesses across the world mandated masks.
A range of studies have been produced since then on whether masks have been effective, with some showing face coverings making little-to-no difference in curbing the spread of the virus. However, the CDC has touted the practice and backed a study saying that masks “effectively filter virus-sized particles in laboratory settings” and that “use of respirators with higher filtration capacity was associated with the most protection, compared with no mask use.”
