Berkeley Reinstates Mask Mandate

ALAMEDA COUNTY, CA – Alameda County and the city of Berkeley on Wednesday announced it was effectively reinstating its mask mandate, and the new health order applies to everyone, regardless of vaccination status.

The city and county jointly announced the decision to rescind amendments to a previous health order that allowed fully vaccinated people to go unmasked in limited circumstances.

The new health order goes into effect Thursday at 12:01 a.m.

NBC Bay Area reported Tuesday that Alameda and Marin counties would likely revise their health orders this week, and both counties did so on Wednesday.

Contra Costa County announced a similar measure Tuesday, fueling speculation that other counties would follow suit.

Alameda was among several Bay Area counties that were granted a state exemption for certain settings where vaccines are required such as gyms and offices. The move aligns Alameda County with the rest of the state.

The revised health orders come as an omicron case explosion tears across the nation and much of 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."

The joint statement included an admonishment that the unvaccinated get their shots and that anyone who tests positive or is symptomatic stay home.

People who are unvaccinated or haven’t gotten their booster shot are urged to stay home if exposed.

"Omicron may be more transmissible, but we have the tools to prevent infection," Alameda County Health Officer Dr. Nicholas Moss said in a statement.

"Because even a mild infection in a vaccinated person may be passed on to someone who could become hospitalized, we must take every precaution this winter."

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.

"The Omicron variant requires us to use all the tools at hand to reduce the chance of transmission," Berkeley Health Officer Dr. Lisa B. Hernandez said in a statement.

"Masks are more important than ever to minimize the spread of COVID to our most medically vulnerable community members."