Health: Masking restrictions for COVID-19 lifted in county, throughout state

Spreading of deadly virus in county in steep decline

By Staff Report

After certain metric goals were met, Santa Clara County Public Health Department officials announced March 1 masking for COVID-19 will no longer be required beginning March 2.

The county’s health officials and the California Department of Public Health strongly recommend the public continue to wear masks in all indoor public spaces.

As of Friday March 4, about 1 million of the county’s 2 million residents have received a booster shot dose, according to the county’s dashboard page on vaccinations.

“We are very encouraged by the progress we have made. We have much less COVID spreading in our community as compared to two weeks ago or even a week ago,” said Dr. Sara Cody, the county’s health officer and director of public health.

While Santa Clara County has met the required masking metrics (80 percent of the population vaccinated, COVID-19 hospitalizations in the jurisdiction are low and stable, seven consecutive days with the seven-day rolling average of new cases at 550 or fewer) to transition to a strong recommendation for indoor masking, the county remains in the “medium” level of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new COVID-19 community level framework.

Wearing a mask indoors has played an integral role in reducing COVID-19 risks for individuals, lowering the community spread of COVID-19, keeping healthcare and hospital systems manageable, and ensuring schools remain open, Cody said.

Along with providing additional protection for the most vulnerable individuals and groups, indoor masking, along with vaccines and other layered protections, provides the best defense against long COVID.

For information on the state’s requirements, visit www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/guidance-for-face-coverings.aspx. According to the site:

“Throughout this pandemic, the masking requirement in California schools has allowed the state to keep schools open when compared to other parts of the country.”

California accounts for about 12 percent of all American students, but accounted for only 1 percent of COVID-19-related school closures during the Omicron surge, according to the state. Nationally during the Delta surge in July and August 2021, jurisdictions without mask requirements in schools experienced larger increases in pediatric case rates, and school outbreaks were 3.5 times more likely in areas without mask requirements.