Sonoma County, California, announced that masks are to be worn in health facilities beginning November 1 through March 31.
“Given the greater risk of COVID, flu and other respiratory virus-related illnesses over the fall and winter months, Sonoma County Interim Health Officer Dr. Karen Smith issued an order today requiring health care personnel and others to wear masks inside patient care areas of specified health care facilities,” a statement from Sonoma’s Department of health Services reads. “The health order, designed to protect the most vulnerable populations, will take effect Nov. 1 and last through March 31, 2026.”
Facilities subject to the order include skilled nursing facilities, some long-term care facilities, acute and non-acute rehabilitation facilities, infusion centers, and dialysis centers. Both health care personnel and visitors are to wear masks in “lobbies, waiting rooms, examination rooms, therapy rooms and other areas where patients and health care providers interact,” the county said.
“The risk to vulnerable patients of COVID, flu and other respiratory viruses in health care facilities remains significant, so it continues to be important for face masks to be used in patient care areas when seasonal risk of exposure to one or more viruses is high,” Smith said, adding, “In California, vaccines remain covered by insurance for residents of all ages — and they remain the best protection we have against respiratory virus infections.”
Smith’s order asserts that 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.”
