Santa Clara County has joined the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Sonoma, along with the City of Berkeley, to recommend that people resume masking indoors in public places as COVID-19 cases rise.Â
The masking recommendation applies to both the unvaccinated and the vaccinated.
Santa Clara County is now averaging 76 new COVID cases a day, with 3.9 out of 100,000 people being diagnosed with the disease — a number that is on the rise.
The renewed COVID spread is owed to the disease’s Delta variant. Of all specimens sequenced in California in June, 43% of them were Delta (across the country, 58% of newly infected COVID patients are carrying this variant).
Said a news release from Santa Clara County, “Fully vaccinated people are well-protected from infections and serious illness due to known COVID-19 variants including Delta variants, and vaccinating as many people as possible, as soon as possible, continues to be our best defense against severe COVID-19 infection, and the harm it can do to our region. Vaccines are safe, effective, free, and widely available to everyone 12 and older.”
Shoppers and employees are being encouraged to mask up when at stores or at work. Businesses are encouraged to enact masking requirements for those entering their spaces.Â
People can find local vaccination sites here.
