The Bay Area mask mandate will be dropped. Question is, when?
Health officers Tuesday discussed what it’ll take to end it and they said they’d announce details by the end of the week.
It may include what metrics need to be hit. Whether it's the level of vaccinations, hospitalizations or COVID-19 case rates.
UCSF Infectious Disease Expert Dr. Monica Gandhi said that as long as there’s a target number – she agrees with the idea.
“Without an idea of when things come in and out like mask mandates there can be this accusation of this twilight zone,” she said. “You never know what’s going to happen.”
Hospitalizations and ICUs are higher than where they were in the June 15 reopening, but are on the decline in counties like Santa Clara after the summer delta surge.
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“Our vaccination rates are great in the Bay Area. We are really rivalling countries like Norway, Denmark, Ireland, Portugal which are fully open,” said Gandhi.
Right now, all Bay Brea counties except Solano require masks indoors regardless of vaccine status in businesses, grocery stores and in gyms.
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We talked to some leaving the gym – who say it’s time to leave the choice to people.
“If people want to take those risks, they can take them. If you don’t want to take the risks then get vaccinated or mask up, you know?,” said Jesus Rios of San Jose.
Santa Cruz County dropped its mask mandate last week.
Its health order was set up to automatically be dropped when the county hit the moderate level of transmission, according to the CDC.
We’ll soon find out what it’ll take for the same to happen across the Bay Area.
