COVID: Days Numbered For California's Mask Mandate; Policy To Remain In Schools
SAN JOSE (KPIX) -- Joining a growing number of states, California is dropping its indoor mask mandate starting next Tuesday for those who are vaccinated, but the measure, for now, will stay in place for schools K-12.
Bay Area health experts agree it's the right move as the nation remains in an Omicron surge.
"We need to have kids still wearing masks until those numbers are down further," said UC Berkeley Prof. and infectious disease expert Dr. John Swartzberg. "Let's hurry very slowly in this process."
Cases are dropping dramatically in California, but remain at a record high. On Tuesday, Santa Clara County reported a seven day rolling average of 1,922 cases compared to 3,082 the week prior.
Fifteen states, including Washington D.C., continue to keep mask mandates in place in schools. However, some states, like New Jersey, are dropping the health measure.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told Reuters in an interview Tuesday that now is not the time to tell students to remove their masks in schools.
A spokesperson with the California Department of Public Health said the agency is working with educational, community and local health leaders on updating "masking requirements at schools to adapt to changing conditions" and that "additional adjustments to the state's policies will be shared in the coming week."
Stanford Hospital Infectious Disease Dr. Abraar Karan advised that schools could reevaluate whether to drop its mask mandate in a couple weeks if cases continued to drop.
"We should really be going off of data rather than dates when we decide these sort of measures," Karan said.
He added that now is the time for school leaders to work on making classrooms safer for when masks are removed, including improving ventilation systems.
"We've had a long time now to make schools safer," said Karan. "There's a lot of crowding within classrooms and the ventilation is not up to standard for what is needed."
Natalie Stones, who lives in Fremont, has a 2-year-old daughter who attends daycare five days a week. The toddler must wear a mask at all times except when eating or drinking.
Until a change is announced, she'll be expected to wear a mask indoors at school while her mother will be allowed to remove her mask next Tuesday.
"She's OK with it, and so I'm OK with it," Stones said. "She ended up adapting to it really well, she now has to wear it all day everyday. In an ideal world none of us would have to be wearing masks."
She said that her daughter wears a mask not only because it's a mandate, but also because she's not yet eligible to be vaccinated. Most importantly, Stones said she doesn't mind that her daughter wears a mask because her grandmother is immunocompromised.
"So anything I can do myself, including my child, to help prevent any possible exposure to her I'm on board with it," said Stones.