Health officials in seven Bay Area counties — including Santa Clara and San Mateo — issued a new indoor mask mandate today as the region faces a wave of new Covid-19 cases due to the more infectious Delta variant and the remaining swath of unvaccinated residents.
The mandate will take effect Tuesday at 12:01 a.m.
It requires everyone to wear a mask indoors in public settings like retail stores, regardless of whether they’re vaccinated or not.
The counties are also requiring all businesses and government offices to post clearly visible and easy-to-read signage at all entry points for indoor settings to remind people to wear masks. Here’s an example of the sign the health officials want posted.
Health officials in the seven counties also urged residents to get vaccinated as soon as possible if they have yet to do so, noting that the prevalence of the Delta variant puts unvaccinated people at even higher risk of infection, serious illness and death.
While so-called breakthrough cases in fully vaccinated people are possible, the health officials noted they remain exceedingly rare and the three available vaccines also significantly reduce the chance of developing serious illness or dying from Covid-19.
Click here for the revised health order from Santa Clara County, and here for the health order from San Mateo County.
Permanent Pandemic
Those too stupid to know any better will obey. People have no brains to know that this is all about power and control.
While it’s inconvenient to wear a mask in doors, the unvaccinated population has forced us into this situation. People who are responsible and have taken the vaccine now have to go the extra mile for people who have refused. Since vaccinated people can spread the vaccine, wearing a mask isn’t too much to ask to keep others safe.