Sacramento County took a step higher and turned its indoor mask recommendation into a mandate — becoming the third county in the state to do so. This has followed the state’s new guidance that urged all persons, whether they received vaccines or not, to use face coverings indoors.
The mask mandates were first implemented by Los Angeles and Yolo which decided even before Wednesday’s new guidance was released amid the spread of the more infectious delta variant. Sacramento County joined the two as it released its announcement on Thursday.
There were less than 60 percent fully vaccinated residents in these three counties while Sacramento posted only 51 percent on the vaccine series.
No counties in the San Francisco Bay Area have so far turned their mask recommendations into mandates. This gives a little surprise because as compared to other states, the region was known to be more aggressive.
On Thursday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said that the city is “looking at mask mandates for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people.” She, however, did not specify the date the decision will be finalized.
In addition, Breed said that additional vaccine mandates that cover more than the city employees are being looked into by the city attorneys, but did not give further details.
State data shows that San Francisco, with more than 60 percent fully vaccinated residents, holds the highest vaccine record in the state.
To recall, the new guidelines on masking were done following the recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to mask up indoors regardless of the vaccination status as the more contagious delta variant is pushing the surge in virus cases, SFGate reported.
The guidance of the CDC was made according to the evidence that individuals who have received complete vaccine doses, even if they are protected from serious disease caused by the delta variant, can still infect their unvaccinated counterparts.