Napa joins other Bay Area counties in requiring masks again indoors

Napa County has issued a health order mandating indoor masking, regardless of vaccination status. The order, announced Aug. 5, takes effect Aug. 6 at 12:01 a.m.

“The decision to go forward with a masking mandate when Napa County has mostly followed state guidance is based on the need to protect our health care system,” Dr. Karen Relucio, Napa County’s public health officer, said in a press release. “Although Napa County has high vaccination rates, with 75% of eligible residents fully vaccinated against COVID-19, there is still a concerning rise in hospitalizations that is threatening hospital capacity.”

The decision impacts the public, businesses and schools by retreating from moves to relax rules that started in mid-June throughout California.

Relucio stated the mask order is being made because of a recent and significant increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations and ICU admissions in the county’s hospitals, due primarily to the delta variant of the respiratory disease.

That also helped to drive seven other Bay Area counties, including Marin and Sonoma, as well as the city of Berkeley, to issue a mask order. That order took effect Tuesday at 12:01 a.m. Solano, Mendocino and Lake counties so far haven't implemented a new mask mandate.

Napa County’s mandate requires all individuals to wear face coverings when indoors in workplaces and public settings, with limited exemptions, and recommends employers make face coverings available to individuals entering their businesses.

Dr. Karin Shavelson, MarinHealth’s chief medical officer, told the Business Journal on Aug. 2 that the mask mandate is not a surprise, but is disappointing.

“We are disappointed that (the virus) is still here and there are people who are choosing not to be vaccinated who are quite eligible to be vaccinated,” Shavelson said. “And we are disappointed because it makes our jobs and our work harder, but it is also now a threat to populations that can’t be vaccinated, such as children ages 11 and under.”

Show Comment