Why Placer County is unlikely to enforce California’s statewide mask mandate

A new statewide mask mandate took effect in California on Wednesday. But in Placer County, the top public health official said enforcement of the new rule doesn’t sound likely.

In a county meeting Tuesday, Dr. Rob Oldham said the state’s new mandate doesn’t contain direction on enforcement.

“I’m really not hearing a lot about enforcement, even from the state, so that’s a question we’re getting a lot,” Oldham said. “. . . As far as enforcement, I’m not really hearing a lot across the state about that.”

Oldham told the board that he doesn’t have any reason to expect that county staff would be inspecting or penalizing local businesses for mask compliance.

The Placer County Sheriff’s Office said it won’t enforce the mask mandate.

“The sheriff’s office is currently not in a position to enforce the state mask mandate in our community,” Angela Musallam, spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said in an email. “We do not have the staff, resources, or mechanisms to enforce it. Our commitment to public safety remains our primary focus. We will continue to respond to incidents that require law enforcement attention.”

Oldham said the state reinstated the mask mandate in reaction to the emergence of the omicron variant, which was detected in California last week. The state’s renewed indoor mask mandate will last through Jan. 15.

“A lot of people are asking if we anticipate a return to lockdowns or limits on business capacity or operations ... I would be very surprised if we went back to anything like those levels of restrictions,” he said. “We’re in really good shape relative to where we were last year at this time or back in June.”

Hospitalizations for COVID-19 have been in steady decline since August, apart from two moderate spikes in early September and November. Sixty-nine people are currently in Placer hospitals because of COVID symptoms and 22 are in the intensive care unit, the county’s dashboard shows.

The county’s test positivity rate is 4.2% and its daily case rate stands at 15.3 cases per 100,000.

About 60% of Placer County residents are fully vaccinated, and 90% of its seniors have received their full dose since the vaccine became available in January. Oldham said the county’s high vaccination rate, along with the emergence of “higher quality” therapeutics are reasons to be optimistic.

Oldham said residents should expect a winter surge not just in COVID-19 cases but other respiratory illnesses. However, he said he doesn’t have reason to believe it will be as severe as last year’s winter surge, which lead to the deaths of 168 people over two months.

This story was originally published December 16, 2021 at 10:26 AM.