New CDC level triggered as Sacramento County’s COVID cases climb. Will mask orders return?
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has placed Sacramento County into the “high” community level for COVID-19 danger due to rising infection and hospitalization rates, which could soon trigger a return to mandatory masking at a major school district.
The classification, which came in a weekly update Thursday afternoon from the CDC, means federal health officials are once again advising people in Sacramento County to mask up in indoor public settings.
Sacramento City Unified School District, under its COVID-19 policy, would return to an indoor mask mandate at all of its campuses following the county’s return to the high community level.
However, because the K-12 district adjourns next week for its winter break, it is not yet determined whether the mask requirement will be in place when students return to class. The county could return to the CDC’s “medium” community level during winter break.
Students in the district will return from break Jan. 9. That means mask rules would be determined by the county’s status as of the Jan. 5 update from the CDC. District officials said they would alert parents Jan. 6 to confirm whether indoor masking will be required.
Sacramento City Unified in a message to parents Thursday evening said staff who are working at district facilities during winter break will be required to wear masks indoors.
The district also said it is sending students home with at-home test kits and asked parents to have their students tested Jan. 8, before returning to campus.
Prior to this week, Sacramento County had not been in the high community level since late July, CDC data show.
What does Sacramento’s high COVID community level mean?
Neighboring El Dorado, Placer and Yolo counties, remained in the CDC’s medium level this week due to lower reported COVID-19 case rates than Sacramento.
The CDC calculates community-level classifications based on counties’ weekly case rate per 100,000 residents as well as hospital admission rates for COVID-19.
The main threshold for the high community level is a seven-day case rate above 200 per 100,000 residents. Above that caseload, counties are put in the high community level if their weekly hospitalization rate is above 10 admissions per 100,000 residents.
Sacramento County as of Thursday’s update reached a case rate of 215 per 100,000, with a hospital admission rate of 16.6 per 100,000. Those rates increased from 134 cases per 100,000 and 11.6 hospital admissions per 100,000 in the previous weekly update.
State health data updated Thursday showed Sacramento County with 243 COVID-positive patients in hospital beds, surpassing summer’s peak of 239 for the highest patient total since February. Placer County reported 100 virus patients in hospital beds, also its highest level in the past 10 months.
Sacramento County health officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye has said repeatedly in recent months that the county will continue to follow the state’s lead on masking, and is not planning to return to a countywide mask order unless the California Department of Public Health implements such a requirement.
Twenty-two of California’s 58 counties are now in the CDC’s high community level, including Orange and Ventura counties in Southern California; Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties in the Bay Area; and Fresno and Merced counties in the Central Valley.
Los Angeles County briefly entered the high level, in CDC updates Dec. 8 and Dec. 15, but returned to medium this week due to improving numbers.
This story was originally published December 23, 2022 at 8:42 AM.
