Sonoma County To Lift COVID-Related Public Health Emergency

SONOMA COUNTY, CA — Sonoma County Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase announced Thursday she will soon lift the local public health emergency that was put in place March 2, 2020, to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The local emergency in Sonoma County will expire Feb. 28— the same day California Gov. Gavin Newsom has said the state public health emergency will expire.

The end of the local and state public health emergencies come as COVID-19 case rates are low compared to the previous two winters. Mase cautioned that the virus is still circulating in the community and has the potential to sicken anyone.

“The end of the emergency does not suggest that we have eliminated COVID-19 but rather that we are nearing the endemic phase of the virus that has altered so much of our lives for the past three years,” Mase said Thursday in a news release. “The variants of COVID-19 in circulation today are not as severe as those of the early days of the pandemic. Armed with widely available vaccines and much more knowledge about the virus, we no longer have to treat COVID-19 as an emergency.”

Since the pandemic began, the county reported 113,994 cases of coronavirus and 542 coronavirus-related deaths.

As of Thursday, 84 percent of Sonoma County's population 5 and older were fully vaccinated.

The end of the local health emergency comes at the same time Sonoma County closes two of its last remaining public vaccination clinics. The Roseland Community Clinic in Santa Rosa closes Feb. 25 and the Rohnert Park Community Center clinic closes Feb. 28. Vaccines and COVID-19 testing will still be available to the public through primary health care providers, federally qualified health clinics and most pharmacies.

The end of the local public health emergency is also the end of a health recommendation that public meetings include an optional teleconferencing component to encourage social distancing.

Another change the public will notice is that patients insured through Medi-Cal will need to re-enroll after March 31, as the pandemic-era law allowing Californians to automatically renew Medi-Cal insurance will expire. It is especially important for those with Medi-Cal to re-enroll since resources such as COVID-19 tests and vaccines that the federal government has subsidized since the start of the pandemic will soon carry an out-of-pocket cost, county officials said.

President Joe Biden has signaled he will end the federal public health emergency on May 11.

As for mask requirements, a Sonoma County spokesperson told Patch there is no longer a mask requirement for the general public.

"Certain settings, like hospitals, still require masks and will likely after the emergency is lifted. There is still a recommendation to wear masks, especially for vulnerable people, or someone who may have been exposed to COVID."