{"id":62411,"date":"2025-10-06T18:49:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T18:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/62411\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T18:49:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T18:49:06","slug":"sonoma-county-issues-masking-order-for-some-health-care-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/62411\/","title":{"rendered":"Sonoma County issues masking order for some health care workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lea el art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.<\/a><\/p>\n

Sonoma County\u2019s top health official on Monday issued a mandatory masking requirement for certain health care facilities, a move aimed at curbing the spread of influenza, COVID-19 and other respiratory virus during the fall and winter months.<\/p>\n

The masking order, which takes effect Nov 1, is less restrictive than a similar one issued last year and targets facilities that care for seniors and frail or ailing patients, said Dr. Karen Smith, Sonoma County\u2019s interim health officer.<\/p>\n

Affected facilities include skilled nursing homes; certain areas of long-term care facilities where nursing care is provided; acute and non-acute rehabilitation facilities; infusion centers; and dialysis centers.<\/p>\n

Smith said public health data shows that these facilities are where transmission of respiratory viruses is most prevalent, and where most outbreaks are taking place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are the places where people who are most vulnerable really do need to be protected, either because of their age or they\u2019re immunocompromised, or a combination of those things,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

She added that often these medical facilities \u201calready struggle to stay fully staffed and really can\u2019t afford to have staff going out sick.\u201d Masking, she said, protects both patients and staff.<\/p>\n

Last year, Sonoma County health officials issued a masking order that included general acute-care hospitals, inpatient psychiatric hospitals, as well as outpatient medical clinics.<\/p>\n

Smith said she and Bay Area other health officers consulted with clinical directors across the local health care landscape and determined that such facilities were not now hot spots for transmission.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided to give them a strong recommendation to mask, but it\u2019s up to them to decide to what degree and in what spaces,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Smith said this year\u2019s health order also \u201cnarrowed the spaces\u201d where masking is required. Rather than require masking \u201ceverywhere patients go\u201d this year\u2019s mask mandate focuses on areas of the specified facilities where patients and providers interact rather than casually walk past each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s less broad and, I think, more practical, as well as being supported by the data that we do have,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

County health officials said similar health orders requiring medical workers to mask during the winter flu season have been issued since 2017.<\/p>\n

Smith said the \u201csummer surge\u201d of COVID-19 cases, which started a little later than usual, is finally receding. Transmission across the state has been high but is now decreasing to moderate levels, she said.<\/p>\n

which takes effect 12:01 a.m. Nov. 1 and remains in effect through March 31 next year. Going forward, the order will be re-issued annually, unless rescinded and dates may be adjusted based on viral surveillance data, county officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still do expect that there will be a winter wave,\u201d she said. \u201cBut this is good, because it gives people a chance to get their COVID vaccines before it starts circulating again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, influenza transmission is still low but \u201cit\u2019s bound to rise again.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: October 6, 2025 at 10:10 AM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lea el art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed. Sonoma County\u2019s top health official on Monday issued a mandatory masking requirement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2815,1379,134,51076,51077,527,51078,111,139,69,51080,51079],"class_list":{"0":"post-62411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-covid-19","9":"tag-flu","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-health-officer","12":"tag-health-order","13":"tag-healthcare","14":"tag-masking","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-respiratory-virus-season","19":"tag-rsv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}