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A public indoor mask mandate ends in Alameda County on Wednesday while masks remain “recommended for everyone,” county health officer Dr. Nicholas Moss told the Board of Supervisors Tuesday afternoon.
Alameda County is joining 11 other local jurisdictions in ending the mandate, which is the state’s policy, too.
“This does land as a big change for some people,” Moss said.
Residents and visitors will still be required to wear a mask in public indoor settings if they are unvaccinated and in health care and child care settings, schools, long-term care facilities and jails and prisons regardless of vaccination status.
Moss said the risk of getting infected with COVID-19 is much lower now than in the peak of the winter wave. That peak was the highest of any since the pandemic began, county data show.
“We have come down substantially from that,” Moss said.
Not everyone was happy with Moss’ decision to join the other jurisdictions in ending the mandate.
Supervisor Keith Carson said he prefers keeping the mandate in place until there is “a much better sense of where things are going.”
In public comment, a caller by the name of Jenn L. was disturbed by Moss’s decision.
“You are sending people to their deaths,” she said.
Earlier, Moss said that that the county may need masks again. He argued that health officials need to be mindful of how they are using their emergency powers so that those powers are effective again if needed.
In Moss’ report, which he has delivered at many board meetings, he said the case rate in the county on Feb. 6 was at 53 per 100,000 residents per day and falling.
About 240 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 or with something else along with COVID-19, he said.
Since Jan. 1, 113 people in the county have died from COVID-19 and Moss expects that number to rise.
During the winter wave last year, 720 people died in Alameda County, Moss said.
Vaccination data show 82.2% of all county residents are fully vaccinated and 54% of all 5- to 11-year-olds are fully vaccinated.
More than 800,000 booster shots have been given, Moss reported. Among the fully vaccinated in the county, 59% have received a booster.