Multiple counties in California have started recommending masks indoors, amid a four-fold spike in some areas.
Health officials in three Bay Area counties are urging residents to wear well-fitting masks, such as N-95s or K-95s, in public indoor spaces like restaurants and grocery stores.
The health department in Contra Costa county, just outside of San Francisco, said the recommendation comes as cases quadrupled from May 9 to July 9.
However, rates have plateaued since then, according to wastewater data, and hospitalizations and deaths have remained at historic lows.
The amount of positive Covid tests in California have increased by one percent in the past week. In some areas, cases quadrupled earlier in the summer
Contra Costa, Marin, and San Francisco counties all recommended wearing masks in public places like grocery stores and restaurants. However, this is just a recommendation and not a mandate
The guidance comes weeks after Violet Affleck, the 18-year-old daughter of actors Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, urged officials in Los Angeles county to reinstate mask mandates and end all ‘mask bans.’
And it follows Dr Anthony Fauci’s recent admission that strict measures early in the pandemic like closing schools and businesses may have been too harsh and carried ‘potential collateral negative effects.’
Nearby San Francisco and Marin counties have also recommended masking in public areas amid a steady rise in cases.
Dr Ori Tzvieli, Contra Costa County health officer, said: ‘Face masks are an effective tool to reduce the spread of the virus, particularly for those who are at risk for serious illness when there is evidence of elevated COVID-19 activity in the community.’
‘This is one of those times. Our health system is not seriously impacted by COVID currently, and our goal is to keep it that way.’
Most health agencies in the Bay Area lifted their mask mandates by February 2022.
The new recommendation is not required and is up to personal preference.
Evidence about whether masks actually prevented infections during the Covid pandemic are mixed.
A gold standard analysis of 78 studies and 1million people back in 2023 found face coverings made ‘little to no difference’ to Covid infection or death rates.
Deaths and hospitalizations in California continue declining, according to wastewater data
Meanwhile, in the US overall, Covid have continued to decline since November 2023
Contra Costa county only requires health care workers to mask seasonally, from November 1 to April 30, to reduce the spread of Covid, influenza, and RSV.
As of July 29, the latest data available, 13 percent of nearly 9,000 tests in the area came back positive, a one percent increase from the week before.
Dr Sofe’ Mekuria, Contra Costa County deputy health officer, told local news station KRON4 that the area is mainly seeing cases of the ‘FLiRT’ strains, a variation of Omicron responsible for most infections across the US.
Meanwhile, deaths in California have neared historic lows, with just four deaths reported the week of July 29, half that from this time last year.
Nationwide, 304 deaths from Covid were reported to the CDC during the same week, a 46 percent drop from this time last year. In early 2021, during peak pandemic, over 26,000 deaths were reported to the CDC.
Dr Mekuria noted that while hospitalizations and deaths have remained steady, vaccination rates in the area are declining.
‘We do anticipate a new COVID vax that will have newer strains of COVID that should be coming out this summer or early fall. Potentially as soon as this September,’ she said.
The recommendations come after recent research has suggested that masks may no longer be as effective as they were earlier in the pandemic.
Researchers at the University of East Anglia, for example, found in a May study that masks’ protective effect seemed to disappear in February 2022, around the same time that California lifted its mandates.
The team believed this was due to the Omicron variant, which later mutated into FLiRT, being too infectious for masks to prevent it.
Contra Costa residents told KRON4 that despite the recommendations, few people were actually wearing masks.
‘I do sometimes see people wearing masks. It’s few and far between. Usually older people,’ resident Connie Koplan said.
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