City Of Berkeley: City Of Berkeley And Alameda County Rescind Face Mask Amendments: Everyone Must Mask In All Indoor Public Settings

Berkeley CA

29 December, 2021

11:51 PM

Description

Press release from City of Berkeley: December 29, 2021 Berkeley, California (Wednesday, December 29, 2021) - Today, the County of Alameda and the City of Berkeley announced that their Health Officers are rescinding the face mask amendments allowing fully vaccinated people to go unmasked in some limited settings, effective 12:01 am on December 30, 2021. Everyone, regardless of their vaccination status, must mask in all indoor public settings. This change does not impact face masking requirements for school and youth settings. The local daily case rate is 23.3 per 100,000 residents and rising, and the City of Berkeley community transmission is now categorized as "High" on the CDC's COVID-19 data tracker. The Omicron variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 is highly transmissible and everyone wearing masks in all indoor public settings will help limit the spread of COVID-19 and protect vulnerable residents as we enter a winter surge. "The Omicron variant requires us to use all the tools at hand to reduce the chance of transmission," said Dr. Lisa B. Hernandez, the City of Berkeley Health Officer. "Masks are more important than ever to minimize the spread of COVID to our most medically vulnerable community members." While people who are fully vaccinated can become infected and pass this virus to others, vaccination and boosters greatly reduce the chance of someone going to the hospital or dying because of COVID-19. But rapidly increasing case numbers will cause significant stress on our hospitals, even if only a small percentage of those infected require hospital care. get vaccinated and boosted stay home if positive, symptomatic, or unvaccinated/not boosted and exposed wear a mask in all indoor settings get tested if exposed, symptomatic, and before and after gathering and traveling avoid large or crowded and poorly ventilated settings. You can improve ventilation by opening doors and windows. Links City of Berkeley Health Orders City of Berkeley Vaccine Page This press release was produced by City of Berkeley. The views expressed here are the author's own.