Marinscope
As of this week — Feb. 16 to be precise — masks are no longer required for the fully vaccinated in most indoor public settings in Marin.
The easement came after a meeting of health experts in Marin met with counterparts in Alameda, Contra Costa, Monterey, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma and the City of Berkeley.
Unvaccinated individuals over age 2 will continue to be required to wear masks in all indoor public settings. Businesses, venue operators and hosts may determine their own paths forward to protect staff and patrons and may choose to require all patrons to wear masks.
The change aligns with the California Department of Public Health’s (CDPH) decision to let expire the statewide indoor mask requirement, which was instated on December 15 during the latest COVID-19 surge.
The state’s stand on mask wearing was expected to further change this week.
As of Monday, the lifting of the mask mandate does not apply to school children. But Gov. Gavin Newsom hinted in an interview with a Bay Area television station over the weekend that a change there is coming, too.
“We are in the process of transforming our public education system and moving out of this pandemic mindset. And that includes the masks — and that will happen. Question is when,” he said. He added that he would be ready to roll back the mandate if it weren’t for teachers unions: “They just asked for a little bit more time, and I think that’s responsible, and I respect that. But we are also in a date with destiny.”
Another pandemic move, however, is tightening, not easing. First responders in Marin in the fields of law enforcement, firefighting, and emergency medical response must be fully vaccinated and boosted to work in Marin County’s higher-risk settings, according to a new Marin County health order effective this month.
The county will not allow first responders to “test out” and work unvaccinated.
Health officials said they needed to do this because outbreaks have been traced to unvaccinated first responders. As of Feb. 7, Marin County Public Health was managing multiple, preventable outbreaks in vulnerable, higher-risk settings. Those settings include those in which the first responders work with people who are at higher risk of severe illness, hospitalization, or death from COVID-19, including congregate settings. Among active outbreaks countywide, there is one at the Marin County Jail, nine at skilled nursing facilities (“nursing homes”), nine at residential care facilities for the elderly, and 19 at other group living facilities.
“These outbreaks have been amplified by contact with unboosted staff, an inadequate testing cadence, and a highly contagious variant,” said Dr. Lisa Santora, the County’s Deputy Public Health Officer. “It is critical to protect our public safety and health care systems from the Omicron variant as well as future waves of COVID-19 activity.”
Marin has one of the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates of any county in the nation with 94.9% of those aged 5 and over having completed a vaccine series.
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