Marin To Update Mask Mandate: Report

MARIN COUNTY, CA — Marin is expected to announce an update to its mask mandate Wednesday, NBC Bay Area reports.

Marin 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.

It is not the only community considering tightening restrictions as an omicron case explosion tears across the nation and much of the world.

"We are reviewing our local amendment to the face masking order and will provide our community with more information this week," an Alameda County health official told the television station.

Marin is experiencing a steep omicron-driven case climb, but hospitalizations remain low, a trend likely to continue in one of the nation’s most vaccinated communities.

"If we have one asset, it's high vaccination rates, it's helped us through every stage of this pandemic so far (this year), it has been our singular best strategy," Marin County Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis said earlier this month in a presentation before the Board of Supervisors.

"We have one of the highest vaccination rates in the nation, and we have corresponding low case rates hospitalizations and deaths. That's an asset we're going to continue to lean into.”

Marin's positivity rate has exploded in the past month, with the county on Monday reporting 46.2 new cases per 100,000 residents on Dec. 24, according to data from the county's coronavirus dashboard.

Marin has experienced a nearly fourfold increase in its positivity rate since Dec. 13, when it was 11.7, and a nearly sevenfold since it was 7.0 on Nov. 26.

The outbreak has disproportionately impacted Marin's unvaccinated, a tiny slice of the population of a county with among the nation's highest vaccination rates.

The positivity rate for Marin's unvaccinated residents is 258.7, compared to just 37.5 among the county's vaccinated residents as of Dec. 24.

Marin reported four COVID-19 hospitalizations on Dec. 24, with one patient in an ICU.

"On Christmas Day we had the highest number of cases ever," Willis told The San Francisco Chronicle on Monday.

"We expect to see some signature of COVID in our hospitals. We will see an uptick, undoubtedly. But it's so clearly been uncoupled from case rates."