According to the order,<\/a> the masking requirement applies to health care personnel and non-patients, including visitors and other members of the public accompanying patients, in all patient care areas. Those areas include registration desks in lobbies, waiting rooms, examination rooms, therapy rooms, as well as areas where patients and medical staff interact.<\/p>\nShim said masking helps protect medical staff during flu and cold season, when the health care workforce and medical resources can sometimes become strained. Such health orders have become all too familiar to local residents since the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
While similar to last year\u2019s masking rule, this year Shim removed language that made the order \u201capply annually\u201d during respiratory virus season.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne important change is that this order applies specifically to this respiratory virus season, from November 1st through March 31st, rather than automatically recurring every year,\u201d Shim explained in an email. \u201cI think it\u2019s appropriate to periodically reassess public health measures rather than assume the same approach should continue indefinitely. This also gives us an opportunity to continue conversations with our health care partners about the best approach for future respiratory virus seasons.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shim said she\u2019d like to explore using a \u201cmore data-informed approach\u201d to determining whether such masking rules are needed. That could include establishing a threshold for emergency department visits related to acute respiratory illness, or ARI, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would need to consider which measures best reflect risk, what thresholds would be meaningful, and whether this kind of approach would be practical for health care facilities to implement,\u201d she said. \u201cWe want to look carefully at the evidence, our local respiratory virus data and the experience of our health care partners before deciding what future seasons should look like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shim said the spread of respiratory viruses like flu and COVID-19 typically increase during the fall and winter. Patients in certain health care settings are older, have weakened immune systems or have other health conditions that increase their risk of severe illness, she added. Masking both protects health care workers from illness and prevents virus transmission to patients.<\/p>\n
The health officer said she also strongly recommends that local residents 6 months of age and older get the updated COVID-19 and flu vaccines. Those who are eligible for the respiratory syncytial virus vaccine should get that as well, she said.<\/p>\n
Shim stressed that vaccination doesn\u2019t prevent every single infection. People who are vaccinated can still get sick and even transmit respiratory viruses to others, even if they don\u2019t have symptoms. That dynamic became very apparent during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
But getting vaccinated, she said, saves lives and can reduce the need for hospitalization due to severe illness.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why the masking requirement applies regardless of vaccination status, and why I continue to encourage people to stay up to date on recommended vaccines,\u201d Shim said.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s masking rule is less strict than orders issued during the pandemic and in the years that followed. For example, in 2024, 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
Staff Writer Marisa Endicott contributed to this report. Staff Writer Martin Espinoza can be reached at martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sonoma County\u2019s top health official on Wednesday issued a health order requiring health care personnel and others \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":874574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253,368151],"class_list":["post-874573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-sonoma-county-mask-mandate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=874573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}