Sonoma County, California, announced that it will re-implement a mask mandate for health care workers beginning November 18.
“Given the rising risk of respiratory virus-related illnesses, such as COVID and flu, Sonoma County’s Interim Health Officer Dr. Karen Smith has issued an order requiring health care personnel to mask when in patient care areas,” a press release states. “The health order will be in effect throughout the remaining respiratory virus season, from Nov. 18 through April 30.”
“Regardless of vaccination status, all personnel in patient care areas of health care facilities must wear a face mask through the duration of this order. Additionally, all businesses and governmental entities with health care delivery facilities must enforce this face mask requirement for all personnel entering patient care areas within the health care delivery facility,” the statement continues.
The mask order applies to staff at hospitals, clinics, surgery centers, infusion centers, dialysis centers, skilled nursing facilities, and portions of long-term care facilities.
Several other California counties have mask mandates through the spring, including Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, San Mateo, and Napa counties.
According to the order, the “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.”
