Alameda County health officials announced Thursday that they are reinstating the county’s indoor mask mandate as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to increase locally and across the Bay Area.
The mandate will go into effect at 12:01 a.m. Friday and will apply to most indoor public settings, including grocery stores and gyms.
Students and staff at K-12 schools will not be required to wear masks under the order through the end of the 2021-2022 school year, according to the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency, but they will be required in all other settings for children including summer school and youth programs.
The order will not apply to the city of Berkeley, which operates as its own local health jurisdiction. A spokesperson for the city did not respond when asked whether Berkeley will align with the county.
“Rising COVID cases in Alameda County are now leading to more people being hospitalized and today’s action reflects the seriousness of the moment,” county Health Officer Dr. Nicholas Moss said in a statement. “We cannot ignore the data, and we can’t predict when this wave may end.”
Alameda County is the first county in the Bay Area to reinstate mask requirements in indoor public settings since February, when the state and most counties in the greater Bay Area lifted mask requirements that were implemented to combat the winter surge driven by the omicron variant.
Santa Clara County was the lone holdout among the 11 counties in the greater Bay Area, keeping its indoor mask requirement in place until March 2.
Health officials have urged a return to widespread masking in recent weeks amid a new surge in cases primarily spurred by the omicron subvariant BA.2.
According to Alameda County health officials, COVID cases began to rise in April and the daily number of reported cases has eclipsed the peak of last summer’s wave driven by the delta variant.
Local COVID hospitalizations have also risen to 102, as of Monday, after falling as low as 37 in early April.
COVID cases in general are largely undercounted, according to health officials, due to the wider availability of at-home tests that do not necessarily get reported to the county and infections that may remain asymptomatic and undetected.
“Putting our masks back on gives us the best opportunity to limit the impact of a prolonged wave on our communities,” Moss said.
The Contra Costa County Health Department issued a statement in regards to the Alameda County mandate, saying “At this time, CCHS does not plan to reinstate a masking order. We will let our community know if further precautions are needed.”
Hard to believe there are any gyms left in the Bay Area thanks to the Dems.
Masks have never worked.
It’s all about control.
There are zero places in the world where any variant of omicron have been controlled. Zero. China is destroying themselves attempting it. There is not the slightest evidence that cloth or surgical masks stop the spread of omicron, and only academic proof that n95s do. Sure, they work against aerosols in controlled settings when used properly, but in reality with regards to mandates, they have not worked in the general public.
I want these “follow the science” people to please give me any statistical evidence that masks have or can control omicron. Anywhere.
Everyone is getting covid again because ba5 can reinfect people with prior immunity. There isn’t anything practical anyone can do to stop that.
@Wage Slave
Good post; however, I’m thinking that Cellophane was inferring to controlling people, not the virus. And I would agree with Cellophane.
Cyn,
Yeah, I was just agreeing with him strongly. I probably could have phrased that better.
Of course we will be next. We’ll probably be masked for the next two years at this rate. It’s ridiculous.
This is such unbelievable B.S………..15 people where I work tested positive for covid and the worst anyone felt was a slight flu.
You knew this was coming when they refused to burn the bridge on the way out of town. Mask mandate have to be outlawed.
Is the death rate rising? They didn’t mention that fact. This is total BS and it is not what we should allow the government to do .We live ina free country and not under the thumb of corrupt politicians . The county health officials are nothing more than politicians.
Oh what happened? Are there still some struggling businesses hanging on, trying to stay afloat? Guess our “Health” Department will need to put a stop to that. Has nothing to do with public health – just public control.
@SF oh
+1
Isn’t it interesting that the Dems have nothing to run on so they hope to re-create the pandemic and save us all from ourselves? Unfortunately this time it will back fire…We aren’t running scared anymore. i had “the vid” it was as I expected a bad cold where I needed to rest…OOOOH so horrible
last time they said masks weren’t the hill to die on
I’m not so sure about that
I will not comply
Good luck trying to enforce it ….
People are tired. Yeah there are the hold outs, you know the ones wearing a mask in their car by themselves. But the majority of people are tired of this nonsense.
And then we go to the reason why masks are being considered … I mean if the vaccine (or really just a medicine) works as you claim, and why many companies mandates their employees to get it, then why do I need to wear a mask? Or are saying that the mandated vaccine did not work … or that the virus will continue to mutate like the common flu … hmm … flu like symptoms and flu like mutations … could Covid be a flu variant?
Contra Costa County Health Department better not start playing that ‘Monkey See, Monkey Do’ game again—learning something by mimicry, without understanding why it works or concerned about the consequences. Masks don’t work…
Give up the charade already
It figures. Primary election coming up. The timing fits
If at first you don’t succeed, fail, fail again.
They are dancing on the mine field…. people have had enough!
Do it. Watch the Democrats get wiped off the planet in the election.
They will do it, you will comply. I will never.
NOPE. Not doing it……regardless of what the UNELECTED tools ‘mandate’.
How Convenient that it’s Right before the upcoming elections.
It’s Never going away, too many people chose so called safety while throwing all of their civil liberties away.
‘When they shall cry peace & security……then sudden destruction shall come’.
And BTW, no LEO is going to enforce this baloney.
I will not comply. Why are these idiots still playing covid? 🤣🙄🤮
I work at a school and those who are vaccinated plus the booster shots are the ones getting Covid and all us unvaccinated are fine. But hey continue to blame it on the unvaccinated. No one will wear masks because it’s proven that masks don’t work.
Been there, done that! No thanks!
Just like a typical government on off on off on off on off. Putting the mass on is not going to solve the problem we just need to get through this everybody’s going to get Covid and get over it. I had it a few weeks ago it was fine
Dude. No one is dying of covid and no one is getting hospitalized because of it. If they are, t is because they are already very ill ad gong to die anyways. Even 90-year-old immunocompromised men are making it through this just fine. It is a COLD. A mere cold. And yeah, if you are already dying, a cold is going to speed that along for you. Stop the hysteria.
Here is some science. If you are too lazy or busy to read the study, the Too Long; Didn’t Read is that Masks did NOTHING to lower covid rates!
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.04.22272833v1
“In fall 2021 in Finland, the recommendation to use face masks in schools for pupils ages 12 years and above was in place nationwide. Some cities recommended face masks for younger pupils as well. Our aim was to compare COVID-19 incidence among 10–12-year-olds between cities with different recommendations on the use of face masks in schools. COVID-19 case numbers were obtained from the National Infectious Disease Registry (NIDR) of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, where clinical microbiology laboratories report all positive SARS-CoV-2 tests with unique identifiers in a timely manner, including information such as date of birth, gender, and place of residence. The NIDR is linked to the population data registry, enabling calculation of incidences. We compared the differences in trends of 14-day incidences between Helsinki and Turku among 10–12-year-olds, and for comparison, also among ages 7–9 and 30–49 by using joinpoint regression. According to our analysis, no additional effect seemed to be gained from this, based on comparisons between the cities and between the age groups of the unvaccinated children (10–12 years versus 7–9 years).”
Thanks for providing that link. Its pretty cut and dried that masks are useless and should never be mandated.
This guy knows credible info when he sees it.
medRxiv (pronounced “med-archive”) is a free online archive and distribution server for complete but unpublished manuscripts (preprints) in the medical, clinical, and related health sciences. Preprints are preliminary reports of work that have not been certified by peer review. They should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
I hate to double post, but I think it is relevant. I was planning on making a trip to Alameda Island to see several sites. The pinball museum, the Alameda Museum, Alameda Island brewing, the beach..
With these restrictions in place, I won’t spend a dime. I’ll make a day trip elsewhere.
Masks never improved covid rates as proven by multiple studies such as this one https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.04.22272833v1
I work at a school and those who are vaccinated plus the booster shots are the ones kidding Covid and all us unvaccinated are fine. But hey continue to blame it on the unvaccinated.
Is it a year round school?
@Anon
The article you posted has not been peer reviewed. It is unverified.
“This article is a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed [what does this mean?]. It reports new medical research that has yet to be evaluated and so should not be used to guide clinical practice.”
Can you provide something that has been reviewed?
@ Danged ineffectual – can you post a link to a peer reviewed study finding that mask mandates actually reduce the rate of community transmission?
The way some people are behaving out and about, if the mandate is reinstated in our county, I would not want to be the person asking someone to put on a mask.
#ignored
If Joe SixPack wants beer, he’ll put the damned mask on despite his beliefs, get his beer and some Twinkies, then toss it aside in his car, forget about it until next time, & just move along.
So how does this “wave” compared to the summer cold/flu seasons of 2010-2019? Oh, that’s right they weren’t keeping track back then. Remember “a summer cold is a different animal”. 😉
Too bad the County does not have that authority. So no I will not wear a mask again.
Nope, not doing it! Cases do not = deaths or hospitalizations so they can go to you know where…
Take away reason, and accountability. What are we left with? A society governed by fear and hatred. A government that is not offering ANY solutions. A government that tells us who we should hate, and who we should blame. It’s pathetic and disgusting.
If people comply with this mask BS this time around then there is no turning back. These dictators will stop at nothing to control everything you do from now on. DO NOT COMPLY.
There are reports that in China the government’s severe quarantine measures now have them confiscating people’s pets and killing them in the streets claiming the pets are dangerous now too!
What’s scary about this is that we have our covid-nazis here in our own country who seem to thrill over the control and I’m worried about what they could do. And it’s odd because it’s usually the liberal and supposedly tolerant communities that have become the most Nazi like.
100% correct. There are YouTube videos of Police dressed up in the White medical suits beating to death family pets that have been placed into bags and tossed on sidewalks. Absolutely SICKENING!!!
NOPE. I will not be complying. They can take the mask mandate and shove it up ……. Any County Supervisor voting for a mask mandate MUST be voted out immediately.
Shame on your no vaxer, my grandfather died because of you people. Go get vaccine safe a life
You are not listening! The “Vaccine” does not work on this variant. I reckon the “Vaccine” will not protect you from any variant going forward. Its akin to taking a 2 year old Flu shot, it does not work!
Why trust in a “VAX” that’s forced upon the masses. My Best friend got both “VAX” and got Covid 3 times. I’m sorry but our government is not for the people its for big Farma and there genetic experimental BS. Do your own research before getting the death Jab.
Wow. You fools really need to.go take a look at the County’s Covid page. It’s making its way back to us. Putting your head in the sand because “freeDUMB” is straight up IGNORANT.