It’s been more than nine months since California required face masks indoors in public places to slow the spread of COVID-19. But with cases spiking again during the winter holiday season, is there anything that could trigger a return of the mask mandate?
State health officials considered it an “important tool” in keeping the virus from overwhelming hospitals, which are seeing a rise in cases — but nothing, so far, like last winter’s record numbers. For now, masks remain optional indoors — but highly recommended — in most public places. But the latest spike in infections already has sparked a stepped-up indoor mask requirement in some settings under state law. Here’s a quick look at what the current rules say.One year ago this week the state reinstated its general indoor face mask requirement amid a sharp rise in cases from the super-contagious omicron variant.
requires masks in such high-risk settings. The law allows masks to be optional in those settings for counties in the CDC’s low community level.The CDC introduced the community level metric in March, based both on case rates and hospitalizations to reflect the virus’ impact on the regional health care system. The CDC maintains anof the country listing the risk level in every county.