Alameda Co. Mulls New Mask Mandate: Report

ALAMEDA COUNTY, CA — Amid a steep omicron-fueled case climb, Alameda County residents could soon see new mask-wearing requirements, NBC Bay Area reports.

Alameda would be among at least two Bay Area counties to reinstate a mask mandate for indoor settings this week should it follow Contra Costa, which on Tuesday announced it was reinstating the mandate for indoor settings, regardless of vaccination status.

Marin is expected to announce new mask requirements Wednesday, the television station reported.

The tightening of COVID-19 restrictions comes as an omicron case explosion tears across the nation and much of the world.

An Alameda County Public Health Department spokeswoman indicated her agency is considering going in the same direction.

"We are reviewing our local amendment to the face masking order and will provide our community with more information this week," Neetu Balram told the television station.

The speed with which omicron has vanquished delta as the dominant variant has shocked the world.

Federal health officials said last week that omicron has already become the dominant variant in the U.S. accounting for 73 percent of new infections, The Associated Press reports.

"All of us have a date with omicron," Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security told The AP.

"If you're going to interact with society, if you're going to have any type of life, omicron will be something you encounter, and the best way you can encounter this is to be fully vaccinated."

Alameda County officials are counting on the community’s high vaccination rate to help it avoid catastrophe.

The county’s coronavirus dashboard reports as of Wednesday 85.3 percent of eligible residents have had at least one dose and 79.1 percent are fully vaccinated.

The county’s positivity rate has nearly quadrupled in less than a month, ballooning from 6.1 percent on Nov. 28 to 22.5 percent on Dec. 21.

The new cases are largely driven by the unvaccinated, whose 37.8 percent positivity rate is more than double that of the county’s fully vaccinated population (18.6 percent).

Alameda County has seen a less pronounced uptick in hospitalizations, although that metric has consistently been a lagging indicator.

As of Dec. 27, there were 108 coronavirus-related hospitalizations in Alameda County, nearly double its Nov. 27 55 hospitalizations.

Read more at NBC Bay Area