Sacramento County officially lifts mask, virtual meeting orders as COVID rates drop
Sacramento County has formally lifted its local health order requiring those fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to wear masks in most indoor public settings, as well as a separate order that suspended boards and councils from conducting in-person meetings.
The changes are effective immediately, county officials said in a Wednesday morning news release, putting Sacramento County in alignment with the state’s health orders.
“It is important to note that the masking mandate now reverts back to what the state had prior to Dec. 15, which means it will still be required in certain settings,” county health officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye said on a call with reporters Wednesday morning.
Those settings include health care settings, nursing homes, jails, prisons, homeless shelters, emergency shelters, K-12 schools and other child care settings.
Kasirye said businesses may allow patrons to self-attest that they are fully vaccinated, or they can choose to continue to require that all patrons wear masks regardless of vaccination status.
Kasirye on Jan. 6 ordered all public meetings in the county — including entities such as city councils, school boards and the county’s Board of Supervisors — to be held remotely rather than in person. Kasirye at the time, when coronavirus numbers were roaring to all-time highs, said the move was an effort to “protect essential government functions.”
In-person meetings may now resume.
The county’s mask requirement had been in place since late July, imposed in response to the then-dominant delta variant.
Kasirye had previously set a goal of five daily cases per 100,000 residents before lifting the local mask order. At the time, the county and state were dealing with the previously dominant delta variant.
“Omicron is different,” Kasirye said. “We don’t know how far it’s going to fall. What is very hopeful is that the numbers are declining very quickly.”
The local health office on Wednesday reported Sacramento County’s case rate at 36 per 100,000, down from a peak of 245 per 100,000 on Jan. 10.
“So that is quite a decline, and other indications we’re seeing from the state projections are that those numbers will continue to go down,” Kasirye said.
Hospitalizations with COVID-19 have also dropped from a county record of 657 on Jan. 25 to 398 as of Tuesday, CDPH reported Wednesday.
As the surge subsides, the county’s COVID-19 response will shift in other ways.
Starting Feb. 28, most sections of the county’s online data dashboard, including those dealing with case numbers and deaths, will be updated once a week rather than every weekday as they had been since the start of the pandemic.
County epidemiology program manager Jamie White said this is largely because state health officials earlier this month changed reporting requirements for health care providers and laboratories, meaning the county’s source of data for lab-confirmed cases will not be updated as frequently.
This means some of the resources that have gone toward broad case surveillance and in-person contact tracing will be focused toward protecting vulnerable populations.
“We are adjusting our response based on the activities that we are seeing,” Kasirye said.
White said the county uses an automated contact tracing system using text message and emails, and that public health staff reach out by phone calls to those who don’t respond. Sometimes they call four or five times, White said.
“We’ll probably scale that back and have an in-person staff really working with the more severe cases – hospitalizations, congregate settings,” White said. “Less of a focus on the individuals in terms of in-person follow-up.”
Kasirye said she personally will continue to wear a mask in indoor public settings because they offer an additional layer of protection against COVID-19.
“I have full confidence in the vaccine and I am vaccinated and boosted, but I will still wear a mask.”
This story was originally published February 16, 2022 at 8:37 AM.
