Sacramento City Council to return to in-person meetings. How will they ensure COVID safety?

For the first time since March 2020, the Sacramento City Council will return to in-person meetings after switching to virtual meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Starting Aug. 9, the council will conduct its meetings in its chambers at City Hall. The public and media will be allowed to attend in person beginning Aug. 16, but masks will be required and the chambers will be kept at half capacity, according to a news release from the city.

The decision to keep meetings in person will be made on a week-by-week basis based on public health, Mayor Darrell Steinberg said in the statement.

“We have been and are continuing to do our very best to balance the fact that COVID continues and in some ways is increasing,” Steinberg said. “It’s time, at least slowly, to try to get back to where we were.”

The meetings will continue to be live-streamed, and public comments will be accepted both in person and via Zoom.

Sacramento County currently doesn’t have any public health restrictions in place to prevent in-person meetings, and the city said they will be watching COVID case rates closely to ensure public safety.