Indoor Mask Requirement To Stay For Now In Santa Clara County

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA — Santa Clara County will not lift its indoor mask requirement on Feb. 16, straying from both the state’s plan to lift its mask mandate on that day and the rest of the Bay Area counties that will follow the state guidance.

But county officials announced Wednesday morning that they anticipate ending the mask requirement within weeks as COVID-19 cases continue to decline after the omicron surge.

“We must continue to base our decisions on the risks COVID-19 presents to our community, and we look forward to lifting the indoor mask requirement as soon as we can do so without putting vulnerable people at undue risk,” said Dr. Sara Cody, the county’s public health officer, in a news release.

Los Angeles County also announced this week that it would keep its indoor masking requirement.

In a news release, officials said that Santa Clara County has yet to meet two of the three metrics it set to lift the indoor masking requirement: stabilizing the COVID-19 hospitalization rate and the seven-day average of case rates dropping at or below 550 for at least one week. It has met the third one of fully vaccinating 80 percent of county residents.

Currently, the county’s seven-day average case count is 1,922 cases per day and hospitalization rates “likewise remain high, and are not yet falling,” officials said.