Mask mandates are returning for a limited time during cold and flu season in the heart of California's deep blue San Francisco Bay Area.
With winter quickly approaching, several Bay Area counties recently issued health orders requiring the use of face masks in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and other healthcare settings, beginning November 1 and extending through March 31 or March 30. April 2025, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The new mandates were put in place to prevent the spread of the flu, COVID and other seasonal illnesses. The requirements apply only to healthcare workers, except in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, which also require visitors to wear masks. Santa Clara also requires patients to wear a mask, according to the outlet.
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People shop at a supermarket that enforces the use of masks in Los Angeles on July 23, 2021. (CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images)
Localities that have issued health orders include Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, San Mateo and Napa counties.
Healthcare facilities that must comply with the orders include hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, dialysis centers and infusion centers.
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(Certain counties in the San Francisco Bay Area are issuing limited mask mandates for cold and flu season.)
Santa Clara County will exempt children under the age of 2 and people with medical conditions for whom wearing a mask may obstruct breathing or who are unconscious, incapacitated or otherwise unable to remove the mask without assistance.
Although much less restrictive than COVID pandemic-era mandates, the masking requirements still drew opposition from critics.
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Visitors enjoy exhibits at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, California, on Tuesday, August 3, 2021. (Nina Riggio/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
“Mask mandates are back in California,” said Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., who faces a challenge from Democrat Jessica Morse. “My opponent, a Newsom staffer, supports masking 2-year-olds. America's leading masker of 2-year-olds, Xavier Becerra, is planning a run for governor. We must elect the right people to ensure history does not repeat itself.”
The mask orders are similar to health orders issued during last year's cold and flu season.
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In January, several New York City public hospitals joined health facilities in states across the country to reinstate mask mandates in response to a rise in COVID-19 cases and flu infections.
The mandates were lifted once flu season ended.
