Twelve Bay Area health officers are stressing the importance of taking safety precautions, including continued masking indoors, as the region experiences a new swell of COVID cases and hospitalizations. The Bay Area now has California’s highest COVID infection rates. The current wave is fueled by highly contagious Omicron subvariants. Bay Area counties are seeing increases in reported cases, levels of virus in sewer sheds, and hospitalizations. Actual case rates are higher than those reported because of widespread use of home tests. Read more »

Masks still strongly recommended; vaccines and boosters urged to further strengthen defenses In alignment with the State, the Bay Area counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, and the City of Berkeley will lift universal mask requirements for most indoor public settings beginning Wednesday, February 16. Unvaccinated individuals over age 2 will continue to be required to wear masks in all indoor public settings. Businesses, venue operators and hosts may determine their own paths forward to protect staff and patrons and may choose to require all patrons to wear masks. Read more »

With COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations declining, Sonoma County Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase made clear today that a health order temporarily restricting the size of large gatherings will expire as scheduled at 11:59 p.m. on February 10. Read more »

Due to the rapid rise of COVID cases surging through the community, Sonoma County Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase today issued an appeal to residents to stay home as much as possible for the next 30 days and limit interactions with those outside of their immediate household. Read more »

Sonoma County today joined four other Bay Area counties in rescinding exemptions to local public health orders that allowed stable groups of fully vaccinated people to remove their masks indoors in some workplaces, gyms, churches and other public settings. Read more »