Specific mask mandates go into effect in 6 Bay Area counties

OAKLAND, Calif. - Six Bay Area counties are once again requiring face masks in health care settings starting on Friday. 

This mandate only applies to medical buildings where patients are being cared for. 

The counties with these requirements include San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Napa and San Mateo counties. 

The orders require masks to be worn in hospitals and skilled nursing facilities, but there are different rules for different counties. In Santa Clara County, it also includes places like private doctor offices, dental and optometry offices, physical therapy facilities and behavioral health care settings. 

In Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, patients and visitors at those facilities must also wear masks, not just employees. 

The mandates run through the end of March in most counties, but in Contra Costa County it runs through April. 

This time period is often deemed the winter respiratory virus period. These orders are designed to reduce the spread of viruses that cause the cold, flu, RSV and COVID. 

Dr. Anuruddh Kumar Misra, who has an independent practice for sports and internal medicine in San Francisco, said whether these mandates are helpful depends on what the goal is. 

"If you’re saying, ‘I want to stop COVID,’ well the cat's out of the bag. There’s no stopping COVID. Everyone is going to be at least exposed to it, no matter what we did. So is it practical to put everyone in an N95 to stop something that everyone has already been exposed to? Well maybe for a very vulnerable population," said Kuma Misra. 

He said at the height of the pandemic, the fear was people were asymptomatic but still carriers for COVID. Now a majority of the population has been vaccinated or sick with COVID, so that is less of a concern. 

Because of that, there are other contexts where he thinks masks don't make sense, like in a pediatric unit or where someone might be getting treated for back pain, but has no symptoms of a respiratory illness. 

He said if the goal is to prevent more respiratory illnesses in general, masks could help. 

"We saw in 2020 that there was a lot more masking going on, and it was the case that other pathogens transmitted less, so there were less flu cases as a result. So I do think there’s a decreased burden of transmission with masking in general," said Kuma Misra.

Nearly every Bay Area county has a mask mandate starting in November, except Solano, Sonoma and Marin.