by Jack Phillips, Activist Post:
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 who have issued upcoming mask mandates say 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 when mandates were widespread across much of the United States.
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Alameda County, which encompasses the city of Oakland, issued an order last month that mandates 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 said, 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 and 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 and 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 mandates health care workers in health care facilities wear masks. It doesn’t apply to visitors and patients.
