Keep Those Masks On, Santa Clara County Says, At Least for A Few More Weeks

Santa Clara County public health officials announced today that the county will keep in place its local indoor masking requirements when California lifts statewide indoor masking requirements Feb.16.

Numbers of new cases and hospitalization rates remain high in the county, despite high rates of vaccination, officials said.

California gives counties and cities the authority to enforce public health rules that are more strict than the state. The Santa Clara County announcement at a morning outdoor briefing streamed on social media followed similar comments by Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody at the county Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday afternoon.

Nearly all of the greater Bay Area's 11 counties will lift their indoor mask mandates next week, aligning them with the state's plans to lift its mask requirements. Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Sonoma and Solano counties and the city of Berkeley will all drop their requirements to wear a mask indoors, regardless of vaccination status, on Feb. 16. Los Angeles County has announced it will not immediately lift its local masking requirement, local officials noted today.

Santa Clara County “will continue to base decisions on whether and when to lift indoor masking requirements on the risks posed by COVID-19, using clearly defined metrics related to vaccination, hospitalizations, and COVID-19 case rates,” the public health statement said this morning.

The county said it “anticipates that it will be able to lift indoor masking requirements in a matter of weeks, as case rates continue to decline.”

The county previously announced metrics for lifting local masking requirements in October.  Today, the County Public Health Department announced that it had updated these metrics, which were adopted when the Delta variant was circulating in the community, to reflect the fact that the current Omicron variant poses less risk of severe illness and hospitalization than Delta.

The previous metrics required that the seven-day average of new cases be approximately 150 or fewer based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “moderate” criteria.  The updated metrics allow indoor masking requirements to be lifted when the county’s seven-day average of new cases is 550 or fewer for at least a week.

The county said it has already met one of the three metrics for lifting the indoor masking requirement—that 80% of all county residents are fully vaccinated. The two remaining metrics are not yet met. The local indoor masking requirement will be lifted when the remaining two metrics are met:

  • COVID-19 hospitalizations in the jurisdiction are low and stable, in the judgment of Cody
  • The seven-day average of new cases per day is at or below 550 for at least a week.

While overall case rates have declined significantly since their January peak, according to the latest county statistics, COVID-19 continues to circulate widely, and case rates are still higher than at any other time in the pandemic prior to the January Omicron peak.

The current seven-day average case count is 1,922 cases per day, which is in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention highest level of community transmission, the county reported.  Hospitalization rates likewise remain high, and are not yet falling.

The state will lift its universal indoor masking requirement Feb. 16, but will still continue to require universal indoor masking in many settings after Feb.16, including all K-12 schools, childcare facilities, public transit, healthcare facilities, shelters, jails, and long-term care facilities.

“We must continue to base our decisions on the risks COVID-19 presents to our community, and we look forward to lifting the indoor mask requirement as soon as we can do so without putting vulnerable people at undue risk,” said Cody, who is the county’s public health officer.

“In the meantime, we need to continue to do what’s needed to keep our community protected,” Cody said in a statement. “Universal indoor masking is critical to protect our community, especially community members who are older or immunocompromised. Continuing to mask indoors should also allow our case rates to continue to drop quickly.”

For updates, visit the Public Health Twitter , the County of Santa Clara website or the county's Public Health Facebook page.

 

34 Comments

  1. CA, NY = Permanent Pandemic Panic Pushers…
    ..
    Driving some Folks to Unrealistic Fear-Mongering.
    ..
    ————— Freedom Vs. Fear & Oppression ——————
    ..
    States ranked by COVID-19 Death Rates:
    Feb. 2nd, 2022
    Avg Daily COVID Deaths & COVID Deaths per 100,000 over last 7 days:
    FLORIDA: ……Daily avg deaths: 170.3 / Deaths per 100K: 0.79
    VIRGINIA: ……Daily avg deaths: 34.3 / Deaths per 100K: 0.4
    TEXAS: ………Daily avg deaths: 176.1 / Deaths per 100K: 0.61
    CAlifornia: .….Daily avg deaths: 171.3 / Deaths per 100K: 0.43
    NY State: ……Daily avg deaths: 189 / Deaths per 100K: 0.97
    Wash DC: ……Daily avg deaths: 2.4 / Deaths per 100K: 0.34
    ..
    CA & NY & DC are the Most Locked-Down & Mandated states/districts in the nation,
    BUT..
    Still have Covid-related Death Rates On-Par with the “FREE” States.
    ..
    Common Sense & Science Finally Takes Hold in DEM-led Blue States,
    – Plan to END School Mask Mandates and FREE the Children:
    Connecticut,
    Oregon,
    New Jersey,
    Delaware

    ————————————————
    Cold-Like Omicron..~ 99% of all reported cases…
    ..
    As of Feb 6th,
    Cases are Falling in nearly every state – Down 60% from 2 weeks ago.
    ..
    In the 4 largest states – New York, Florida, Texas and California –
    New Infections are DOWN 50% to 80%.
    ..
    Daily avg for Hospitalizations was DOWN 23% over the last 2 weeks.
    ..
    ————————-
    Outside of a few Over-Authoritarian Politicians & Bureaucrats
    Pushing Mandates, Masks, Passports, and Lockdowns…
    and
    the ‘Long-Lockdown Affected’ Fear-mongers…
    No One Cares…anymore.

    Get Outside & Enjoy the Great Weather we are having! (without a mask)
    Mid-70’s Today!
    ..
    —— “Four States set Timelines to END SCHOOL MASK MANDATES” (cnn Feb7th) —–
    ..
    “The DEM governors of Connecticut, New Jersey and Delaware as well as Oregon’s health department have set timelines for the end of their states’ school mask mandates in a sign of the receding wave of COVID-19 and the country’s move toward a “New Normal.”
    ..
    “I think you now know enough after 2 Years to be able to make an informed decision yourself.” said CT Governor.
    ..
    “Vaccination rates in New Jersey & Delaware are above average for the U.S.
    About
    73% in New Jersey,
    74% in Connecticut and
    67% in Delaware
    are fully vaccinated…”
    ..
    Many (“FREE”) States led by GOP Leaders NEVER instituted School Mask Mandates
    or have rescinded them.”
    ..
    “The rapid decline of the omicron variant over the past few weeks has also made states more comfortable dropping mask requirements.”
    ..
    “The Biden admin has NOT Offered a PLAN or Roadmap for how states should handle the transition out of the COVID-19 emergency into a greater sense of Normalcy.”

  2. Prior to 2020, masks were considered “courtesy” masks

    During the power grab plandemic, they made your kid wear them all day at school once they finally conceded, they checked your vax papers, they did a Stanford Prison Experiment on you and your kids.

    Now it is clear they were just courtesy masks all along.

    And the vax is not a vax, it is an mRNA hack. This was known 18+ months ago. It was known that you would get infected, it’s just the symptoms would be suppressed. Once the little virus gets inside, it mutates. This too was known, that’s how viruses work.

    This is not a pandemic of the unvax’ed, as much as you wish it was so you can justify your hate. Biden lied and knew it.

    When are you going to see the truth?

    You are being lied to, fear-porned, manipulated, used, and deliberately impoverished.

    When will you stand up for yourself, for your kids?

    When will you get some self-respect?

  3. How about Cody first provide data from a controlled study showing that the masks offer any benefit at all? How about our county supervisors come out of hiding and work to reopen the county and return us to normalcy? This is bad for ALL Santa Clara County businesses and schools and will have the long-term effect of stopping people from opening new businesses in the county. Who would open a business in a county with a trigger-happy quack opening and closing things on a daily or weekly basis as she has? Cody is ordering continued use of comical masks when everyone else is realizing that they have no medical or political benefits anymore. They’ve become a political liability and if we ever have a controlled study will likely be shown to further the spread of the virus with everyone touching their noses and mouths all day to adjust them. Why is one apparently intellectually deficient or simply deviant person able to make such rules for millions of people? Clearly something is completely broken in our method of governance and the voters need to correct this urgently.

    “COVID-19 hospitalizations in the jurisdiction are low and stable, in the judgment of Cody
    The seven-day average of new cases per day is at or below 550 for at least a week.”

    Since when was a quack appointed king? Are the hospitals asking for this? We literally have thousands of backup capacity hospital beds available to us. The county used to publish the reserve hospital bed count but King Cody ordered them removed from the count to make it appear like there was some shortage and we’re on the edge of running out of beds. The bay area has more hospitals and medical staff than anywhere else in the world with multiple major medical universities.

    Where’d the absurd and arbitrary 550 new cases per day come from and how come no one else in the world is tracking it?

    The whole lot of county supervisors need to be recalled and Cody needs to be removed from office immediately. If you love your family and your business, you’ll work to make these things happen.

    I can’t change the world but I will not shop at any Santa Clara County store or eat in any Santa Clara County restaurant until this absurdity ends. You guys all just enjoy comedy hour on your own.

  4. I feel most for the School Children needlessly Damaged by these Health Officials that kowtow to the whims of the Corrupt Teachers Unions and Teachers.
    Don’t ever ask me to vote for a School Bond or support measure…

    —– Is a Mask That Covers the Mouth & Nose Free from Undesirable Side Effects in Everyday Use and Free of Potential Hazards? (PMC Apr 2021) ———-

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8072811/ (long, but interesting read)

    – wearing surgical masks in healthy medical personnel leads to measurable physical effects with elevated transcutaneous CO2 values after 30 min.
    – measurements of the gas content for O2 and CO2 in the air under a mask showed a lower O2 availability even at rest than without a mask.
    – Mask Wearing results in a statistically significant increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) blood content…
    – increased rebreathing of CO2 from the enlarged dead space volume in mask wearers can reflectively trigger increased respiratory activity with increased muscular work as well as the resulting additional O2 demand and O2 consumption.
    – documented mask-induced changes in blood gases towards hypercapnia (high CO2 blood levels) and hypoxia (decreased O2 blood levels) may result in additional nonphysical effects such as confusion, decreased thinking ability and disorientation including overall impaired cognitive abilities…

    Various Masks were studied in 12 Healthy Young Subjects (ie. STUDENTS) –
    mask wearers exhibited:
    – a significant increase in heart rate
    – a decrease in O2 saturation
    – an increase in skin temperature under the mask (face)
    – difficulty of breathing
    In addition, the investigators observed
    dizziness ,
    listlessness ,
    impaired thinking ,
    and concentration problems ,
    which were also statistically significant when wearing masks.
    ..
    The mask-induced adverse changes are relatively minor at first glance, but REPEATED EXPOSURE over longer periods in accordance with the above-mentioned pathogenetic principle is relevant.

    CHILDREN are Particularly Vulnerable and may be more likely to receive inappropriate treatment or additional harm.
    It can be assumed that the potential adverse mask effects described for adults are all the more valid for children…
    – a disturbed respiratory physiology in children can have long-term disease-relevant consequences.
    Slightly elevated CO2 levels are known to increase heart rate, blood pressure, headache, fatigue and concentration disorders in children.

    …. further research is particularly desirable in the Gynecological (Fetal & Embryonic) and Pediatric fields, as a pregnant mothers (developing fetus) and
    children are a vulnerable group that would face the longest and, thus, most profound consequences of a potentially risky mask use.

    ——————————————-

  5. I thought the CDC came out and said, finally, that cloth masks are worthless. Here is a quote from EPA researchers:

    “They found that the effectiveness of the masks varied widely: a three-layer knitted cotton mask blocked an average of 26.5 percent of particles in the chamber, while a washed, two-layer woven nylon mask with a filter insert and metal nose bridge blocked 79 percent of particles on average.”

    Let me ask you, how many folks are wearing 3 layer cotton masks? How about 2 layer or 1 layer? The masks are not doing anything…..

  6. How is this even still an argument?
    This was political from the start.
    Masks were known not to do anything before vivid, Fauci said as much in 2019.
    Lockdowns obviously don’t work and contract tracing had almost of cross contamination in home where viral loads build up.

    what is it like to be so dumb you believed all of this

    what is it like to lead such a sad and manipulated life

    you’ve ruined your business

    you’ve destroyed your children

    how much more cancer, domestic violence, drug abuse have you enabled

    and you still push this lie

    you are clueless

  7. Mask mandates are civil liberties infringements.

    What is the justification for keeping them when virtually every other jurisdiction is dropping them? Everyone knows by now masks don’t work to slow the spread of Covid-19. (Dr. Fauci and Sara Cody have known since day one they don’t work). The continued mask mandate in Santa Clara County is despotism from an unelected bureaucrat. Those elected officials who allow it, for nearly two years now, are complicit and need to answer for it. Why haven’t the Santa Clara County Supervisors fired Sara Cody yet?

    Cindy Chavez is currently running for mayor of San Jose.

    Susan Ellenberg is running for reelection on the Santa Clara board of supervisor

    Vote accordingly.

  8. Don, Note that Ellenberg asked Cody for specific criteria for lifting restrictions at a BOS meeting. Cody punted. She was unwilling to specify criteria, nor has she since. Her wiggle words give the impression that specific criteria have been established, but there are none published in fact. When criteria have been published, then the goal posts get moved.

    Chavez co-chair the Government Operations committee and culpable for failing to pin down the matter. Ellenberg shares responsibility. She let Cody slide and has failed to get straight answers.

  9. your kids have not seen their friends smile in 2 years

    and you have only yourself to blame

    your kids have dropped out or stopped trying or lost years of education

    and you have only yourself to blame

    your kids have lost their future

    and you have only yourself to blame

    when will you wake up and stop obeying these people who hate your kids or never had kids?

    when will you fight for your kids?

  10. when will you fight for your kids?

    imagine how you would feel about your parents for what you let them do to you?

    when will you fight for your kids and stop listening to those who are using your kids for their profit?

    when will you make them stop abusing your children?

  11. Political reality has set in. Sara Cody is an outlier. She reigns over one of the most vaccinated counties in the state. She has three criteria to release we subjects from our elastic shackles. And one of her criteria is subjective — a “judgment” call. Where’s the science that she and others of her ilk purport to follow? If you can’t quantify it, it’s not science. It’s opinion. Or perhaps even misinformation.

  12. what is like to be lied to and know it and still believe it?

    what is it like to lie to people out of lust for power?

    what is like to lie to people to serve your master’s greed?

    what is it like to be Cody and Fauci?

  13. Does anyone know if the county supervisors have scheduled public hearings with a lot of time for public comment to give Cody and chance to defend her decisions?

  14. I think covid may have really broken someone.
    The news that Biden plans to report True Numbers will really Burst his Boastful Bubble.

    After 2 yrs of Hyped Covid cases, hospitalizations, and deaths,
    the Biden Admin sees value in actually reporting more accurate results.

    Is this the way to the midterms?
    Scrub the counts that had little to do with Covid and lower the panic pushing numbers,
    ostensibly used to coerce & control the populace through mandates.

    Who knows, with Biden Tanking in the Polls in every category,
    they may need to make a concerted effort to clear up reporting.
    Hurry and provide the update folks,
    the state of the union address and the midterms are close at hand!

    We need to show how (Biden) beat Covid …one way or another…
    …..
    —– “Biden Admin to Change Reporting of COVID-19 Hospitalizations” (08Feb2022 NDiaz) —-

    “The Biden admin will be using new strategies to improve COVID-19 hospitalization reporting,
    according to two senior officials…”
    ..
    “Under the new strategy, which has yet to be enacted,
    hospitals will be asked to report COVID-19 Cases & COVID-19 incidental cases
    and patients admitted for other alignments who test positive for the virus after admission,
    in separate categories…”
    ..
    “Hospitals are not consistently reporting COVID-19 admissions the same.
    Some are labeling all its patients who test positive,
    whether incidental or not,
    as COVID-19-positive and not as incidental cases,
    while others are tracking incidental COVID-19 cases in a separate category.”
    ..
    “The Biden admin is separating the two and Hoping it will provide a
    more accurate sense of COVID-19’s impact while also determining
    if COVID-19 is causing severe disease. ”

    A more accurate hospitalization rate will also help the admin determine how the strain is affecting hospitals … “

  15. broken beyond repair

    no job

    no wife

    no kids

    no money

    eviction moratorium coming to an end

    the coronacation is over, cop-outs, excuses and rationalizations coming home to roost

    reality about to administer a brutal slap

  16. Ok, then I’ll just ask the same question again: Does anyone know if the county supervisors have scheduled public hearings with a lot of time for public comment to give Cody a chance to defend her decisions?

  17. From 46 down to 44 comments…
    I guess 2 commenters were too much on-point to be heard.
    while,
    One person gets to continually embarrass themselves through repeated Brobdingnagian Bloviating,
    and
    Persistent Delusions of Grandeur…

  18. Cody is an absolute psychopath – no question about it. Watching kids wearing masks everywhere for no reason at all is just sad. In fact, for many families – the masking of their child is forced and difficult to cope with – as it’s “wear this mask, even if vaccinated, or don’t come to school.” It’s a forced ultimatum.

    More and more reports are coming out that masks are no only harmful, but complete ineffective in how we apply them. Even before the pandemic, there were zero studies validating mask use in the broader community, as we have tried.

    Below is a report/article from Michigan where 20 school districts were studied, some had mask mandates, and others had masks optional. There was no difference in transmission, and in fact, the mask optional schools had lower transmission rates in many cases. It shows that masks don’t work to reduce transmission – and also shows that fear based mandates are causing an unjustifiable negative impact on children. The facts of this will be clear in years to come, when people will be disgusted by the side effects of poor leadership. From learning loss and speech development issues to higher rates of anxiety… the CTA, state and local leadership has failed children within the public education system.

    https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/2022/02/14/comparing-covid-19-cases-schools-and-without-mask-mandates/6756790001/

  19. the coronacation is ending

    the polls do not lie, the tide has turned against the neurotic

    time to get a job and pay your rent

    time to come out of the hole

    time to be a man

  20. My kids come home from school singing “I wear a mask all day… I wear a mask all day…” You can see the stress in their eyes form this. I’m not kidding. The child abuse we’ve committed to children over the last 2 years is shocking. Think about the isolation of the children in families who only have 1 child. They spent over 1 year alone, without friends and without any contact with classmates because of Cody’s orders. It needs to end.

    How come it’s safe everywhere else in the world to not wear mask but in quacky SCC it’s too dangerous. It’s absurd and it needs to end. We’ve harmed our children enough already.

    Does anyone know when the SCC board of supervisors is scheduling a public hearing with public comments to allow Cody to defend her absurd ideas and present hard data on why what she’s ordering is needed and will be effective this time when it hasn’t been in the past? How about starting with explaining why we can sit in restaurants and bars without masks but as soon as we stand up we have to put them on.

  21. the coronacation is ending

    the polls do not lie, the tide has turned against the neurotic

    time to pay your debts, meet your commitments

    time to get a job and pay your rent

    time to come out of the hole

    time to be a man

  22. Done wearing a mask as of today, I don’t care what Cody says.
    If it’s good enough for all of the elite to go maskless at the Super Bowl (and elsewhere), it’s good enough for me and mine. No More Masks.

  23. The fear of death follows from the fear of life…

    …a MAN who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.

    – Mark Twain

  24. Today I took my mask off and went shopping mask free. I am not reading another word about mandates in Santa Clara County. If a store wants me to leave they can ask. Done.

  25. when I was a chittlin’ daddy would sit me down and tell me

    to be a man you got to do two things

    pay your rent

    and do what you want

  26. The fear of death follows from the fear of life…

    …a MAN who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.

    – Mark Twain

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