Mask Mandates Set to Return in Several California Areas: What We Know
Mask mandates will be returning to several counties in California’s San Francisco Bay Area, starting November 2024. The orders, which were handed down by individual counties, apply mainly to health care workers, although at least two Bay Area counties have extended the requirement to visitors and patients. A similar mandate was handed down broadly across the Bay Area for the 2023–2024 fall-through-spring period. Health officials in counties that have issued upcoming mask mandates said that the face coverings are designed to reduce the spread of COVID-19, influenza, and other respiratory viruses, harking back to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which mandates were widespread across much of the United States. Where the Mandates Are Going Into Effect Alameda County, which encompasses the city of Oakland, issued an order last month that requires staff at health care facilities to wear masks between Nov. 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025. “The fall and winter of 2023-2024 saw substantial waves of R