Since late March, California’s case rate has nearly tripled and the Bay Area — which historically experienced a lower case rate than the rest of the state — has emerged as a COVID hotspot.
Though cases are still one-tenth of what they were during January’s omicron surge, the region has more than three times as many positive cases than it did six weeks after the winter surge. That trend started in San Francisco around mid-March, followed by Santa Clara , San Mateo and a little later the other counties.
The uptick, driven by the emergence of two omicron subvariants that according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now account for most of the cases nationally, have prompted some cities such as San Jose to revisit lifted mandates. Others continue to wait and see, reluctant to change the rules again for a public tiring of mixed messages.
San Jose reinstated an indoor mask mandate Friday for city employees.
City spokesperson Demetria Machado said San Jose doesn’t plan to enforce other coronavirus measures at this time, but the employee mask mandate order could be extended past May 20 depending on the case rate in Santa Clara County .
“The city of San Jose employee mask mandate was reinstated out of abundance of caution due to the recent data from the county of Santa Clara showing an increase in positive COVID-19 cases,” Machado said in an emailed statement. “Our priority remains the health and safety of our employees and keeping the community safe and ensuring we can provide vital services to our residents.”
While the mandate only applies to city employees, Machado added that masks are “strongly encouraged” for people visiting city facilities.
BART also recently reinstated a mask mandate for its riders despite a Florida federal court’s decision last month to void a federal mandate that airlines and transit agencies require employees and riders to wear masks. BART is now requiring riders to mask up through mid-July.
The mandate will impact 50 stations in five counties and be enforced by BART police. Riders who don’t comply with the mandate could be kicked off BART or face up to $75 in fines.
But the uptick in cases across the Bay Area hasn’t signaled new sweeping restrictions. Instead, many jurisdictions have continued to drop mandates or opted not to reinstate them.
AC Transit, the Bay Area’s largest bus operator, chose not to renew its mask mandate following the court decision, and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority has indicated it doesn’t plan to require masks moving forward.
Most of the COVID health restrictions have tapered off since March — the same time Santa Clara County dropped its mask mandates.
San Francisco , which was one of the first cities in the country to implement a “vaccine passport” to get into restaurants, bars and gyms, lifted the requirement around the same time.
Other cities, such as Oakland , have followed suit, with the City Council voting last week to stop requiring proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter indoor public places like restaurants, gyms and museums. Proof of vaccination or a negative test, however, is still required to enter assisted living and senior centers.
Despite dropping the vaccine passport, though, Oakland never dropped the mask mandate for its employees working indoors, according to its employee/human resources page.
Dr. Monica Gandhi , an infectious disease specialist at UC San Francisco, said that while she supported coronavirus restrictions in the early days of the pandemic, she doesn’t see them as necessary now that there are vaccines as well as some natural immunity from the omicron surge because so many have already caught the virus.
We’re now at the point of the pandemic where “endemic management” is needed because COVID isn’t eradicable, Gandhi said.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate,” she said of reinstating mandates. “Otherwise we’re always going to be putting back mask mandates because we’re always going to have COVID.”
But Dr. George Rutherford , another infectious disease specialist at UC San Francisco, believes masking up is still the wisest course right now.
“If I were to go into a movie theater, if I were going into a grocery store, I’d wear a mask,” he told this news organization last week. “In most closed indoor settings, the better part of valor is to wear a mask, at least for a while here.”
While San Jose doesn’t have any current plans to institute other restrictions such as its booster mandate for people attending events at city-owned facilities such as the SAP Center and Center for Performing Arts , Mayor Sam Liccardo said “everything is on the table depending on what the data tells us.”
For now, however, he doesn’t think the city should reinstate any other mandates.
“I think the mask requirement is appropriate given the rising cases,” he said. “We shouldn’t jump ahead of ourselves but continue to vigilantly monitor and respond appropriately.”
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