New Mask Order Takes Effect In Sonoma County

SONOMA COUNTY —For workers in most healthcare facilities in Sonoma County, Nov. 1 is a day to put away the Halloween mask and put on a surgical mask.

To provide a layer of protection to patients against COVID-19, the flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and other viral infections, a new health order took effect Wednesday. Specifically, the order requires governmental and business entities to enforce the face mask requirement for all personnel entering patient care areas within a healthcare delivery facility, regardless of vaccination status, according to the order signed Sept. 19 by Sonoma County Health Officer Karen Smith.

Healthcare delivery facilities include:

• Hospitals
• Clinics
• Surgery centers
• Infusion centers
• Dialysis centers
• Inpatient or outpatient healthcare sites
• Skilled nursing facilities
• Long-term care facilities where nursing care is provided; and
• Facilities where patient care is provided indoors.

Violation or failure to comply is a misdemeanor and may be punishable by fine, imprisonment or both, county officials said.

The mask mandate is similar to orders passed by the nearby counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Marin and Napa. While the exact definition varied by county, masks became mandatory Wednesday and remain so through April 30.

In Santa Clara County, the order extends to any person who enters a healthcare facility, including residents and visitors.

In San Francisco, workers in healthcare facilities and jails must wear masks.

Berkeley, which has its own public health department, passed an order requiring all healthcare facility and emergency medical services employees to wear masks only if they decline to receive flu and COVID-19 vaccinations. That order also went into effect Wednesday and ends April 30.

According to Sonoma County's order, the basis for the mandate was in light of the ongoing transmission of SARS-CoV-2 —also referred to as COVID-19— and the recurrence of seasonal influenza and other respiratory infections.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates that this winter, respiratory diseases will result in as many or more hospitalizations than they did last winter.

"The co-occurrence of influenza season with a possibility of another late fall/winter surge of COVID-19 may increase the risk of our health systems being overwhelmed with patients with critical respiratory illness," Smith wrote in the order, County of Sonoma No. RVP23-01. "The widespread availability of COVID-19 testing and treatment, the high level of community vaccination in the County, and the lower death rate seen in the most recent surges of COVID-19, have diminished the necessity for year-round mandatory orders related to masking in multiple high-risk settings. However, the risk to vulnerable patients of COVID-19, influenza, and other respiratory viruses in Health Care Settings, including skilled nursing facilities, remains significant, and so it continues to be important for Face Masks to be used in Patient Care Areas of these settings when seasonal risk of exposure to one or multiple viruses is at its highest."

Read the complete health order here.