(KRON) — Mask mandates will return to Sonoma County starting next week, the county’s Department of Health Services announced Tuesday. The order will apply to health care personnel who are within patient care areas, regardless of vaccination status.
In response to higher rates of respiratory virus-related illnesses such as COVID-19 and influenza during the winter months, Sonoma County’s Interim Health Officer Dr. Karen Smith issued the order to be in effect from Nov. 18 through April 30.
“All personnel in patient care areas of health care facilities must wear a face mask through the duration of this order,” a statement from the health department said. “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.”
Health care facilities involved in the order include “hospitals, clinics, surgery centers, infusion centers, dialysis centers, skilled nursing facilities, portions of long-term care facilities where nursing care is provided, and other facilities where patient care is provided indoors,” officials said.
In 2023, Sonoma County first ordered that health care workers providing direct patient care were to receive an annual influenza vaccine and wear a mask. Previously, starting in 2017, these workers were required to either receive the annual vaccine or wear a mask.
Other Bay Area counties, including Contra Costa, Alameda, Napa, San Mateo and Santa Clara, began mask mandates this year on Nov. 1. The mask mandates in these areas also apply to health care workers. Additionally, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties require visitors to wear masks. Santa Clara County also requires patients to wear masks during their stay.
In San Francisco, only personnel working in Skilled Nursing Facilities are required to wear a mask while working directly with patients or residents.
Marin and Solano counties have not enacted a seasonal masking requirement.
(KRON) — Mask mandates will return to Sonoma County starting next week, the county’s Department of Health Services announced Tuesday. The order will apply to health care personnel who are within patient care areas, regardless of vaccination status. In response to higher rates of respiratory virus-related illnesses such as COVID-19 and influenza during the winter […]
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