COVID: San Jose reinstates mask rules for city employees over rising South Bay cases
SAN JOSE – A month after San Jose dropped its indoor mask mandate, city officials have reinstated the requirement for its employees amid concerns about increasing COVID-19 cases in the South Bay.
In an email to KPIX 5 on Monday, a city spokesperson confirmed the mask mandate was reinstated last Friday.
"The mask mandate was reinstated out of an abundance of caution due to the recent data from the County of Santa Clara showing an increase in positive COVID-19 cases," said spokesperson Demetria Machado.
According to the most recent data from the county's COVID-19 dashboard, the 7-day average of daily new cases was at 496, up from 194 new cases/day at the start of April.
San Jose officials said the requirement is scheduled to continue through May 20, but acknowledged it may be extended as they continue to monitor cases in the county and within the organization.
"Our priority remains the health and safety of our employees and providing essential services to the community," the city spokesperson went on to say.
The San Jose City Council lifted the mandate for most indoor settings in early April, weeks after the state of California and Santa Clara County lifted its requirements.
The 7-day average of new cases in Santa Clara County is now 552, four times as high as in the middle of March.
Cases are also surging in San Francisco and San Mateo Counties.
"Cases are rising very steeply. But we're still not seeing a huge rise in hospitalizations. So, what we're seeing is a very dramatic decoupling of what's happening in the community and what's happening in the hospitals. It's good for human health, but bad for disruption," said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong of UCSF Medical.
Chin-Hong said the re-opening of the economy, travel, relaxed masking rules and pandemic fatigue have all led to more close contacts which allows the virus and its new sub-variants to spread.
"We've seen a lot of people moving around. Not just locally but nationally and globally. So, our risk in the Bay Area is not just our local risk anymore. It's the risk of all those people coming to visit us as well," Chin-Hong said.
Mask-wearing on the streets is largely a thing of the past. But Jim Suits says he never stopped wearing his, even when cases were down.
"If I'm in a store, a supermarket or anywhere else. I keep it on. I don't want to get it and I don't want to give it to anyone else," Mr. Suits said.
San Jose's mask mandate for city employees is a step backward after it was lifted just a month ago.
"A lot of employees continued to wear a mask even without the mandate, so we're pretty used to it," Machado said.
The city says employees who don't comply with the new mandate are subject to disciplinary action.
Len Ramirez contributed to this report.