“Excited and a little confused,” is how one San Francisco restaurant owner described feeling in an AP story yesterday about the state’s “grand reopening.” It’s understandable, given how rules have evolved and changed over the past 15 months. But, starting Tuesday, things got a lot simpler for Californians: no more capacity restrictions, no more colored tiers, and no more masks … in “most” settings.
New mask rules
Under the state mask rules that went into effect yesterday, masks are not required for vaccinated people except in certain places. Here is the exact language from the California Department of Public Health guidance:
Masks are not required for fully vaccinated individuals, except in the following settings where masks are required for everyone, regardless of vaccination status:
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On public transit[1] (examples: airplanes, ships, ferries, trains, subways, buses, taxis and ride-shares) and in transportation hubs (examples: airport, bus terminal, marina, train station, seaport or other port, subway station or any other area that provides transportation)
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Indoors in K-12 schools[2], child care[3] and other youth settings.
- Note: This may change as updated K-12 school guidance is forthcoming, pending updates for K-12 operational guidance from the CDC.
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Health care settings[4] (including long term care facilities[5])
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State and local correctional facilities and detention centers[6]
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Homeless shelters[7], emergency shelters[8] and cooling centers[9]
Additionally, masks are required for unvaccinated individuals in indoor public settings and businesses (examples: retail, restaurants, theaters, family entertainment centers, meetings, state and local government offices serving the public).
Verifying vaccination status
On Monday, the state announced a new electronic version of the vaccine card would soon be available. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be required to show it. There are three ways businesses can handle the new rules for people who are not vaccinated: people can “self attest” to their status (basically the honor system), businesses can implement their own verification process (guidance is provided for how to do this) or they can just require everyone to wear masks.
Workplace rules
I have been keeping you up to date on changes to workplace rules being discussed by Cal/OSHA, officially known as the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health. To recap, first the agency considered rules that were stricter than the latest CDC guidance. Then they met again to consider feedback from businesses that the rules would be too difficult to implement and enforce. Tomorrow, they will meet to consider revising the rules to more closely match the new state guidelines (these mirror the CDC guidance) after all. On Monday, the Governor said he would waive the 10-day waiting period so the rules could go into effect immediately.
Vaccination updates
The County of San Diego has reached its goal – 75% of residents 12 years and older have gotten at least one shot. That represents 2.1 million people. It’s also more than the state’s rate of 66%, although the state said it is on track to reach the President’s goal of 70% by July 4. San Francisco’s mayor announced Monday that her city has become the first in the nation with 80% of eligible city residents partially vaccinated, and nearly 70% are fully vaccinated.
Why do these percentages matter? It has to do with herd immunity, although health experts conceded that they don’t know precisely what percentage of the population needs to be vaccinated to reach this goal. The percentage is different for different diseases, depending on how easily they are spread. The main takeaway from health experts is that the more people that get vaccinated, the safer we all are.
Incentives
You may already be a winner. Yesterday the governor drew names for the statewide lottery-like program meant to incentivize and reward people who have been vaccinated. Ten California residents were selected at random (from a pool of those who have had at least one shot) to win $1.5 million each. The state will issue checks to winners directly, so don’t fall for scammers who claim to be with the state and need your bank information or other personal details to give you your prize.
On Monday the governor also announced it will give away six “dream vacations,” as both a vaccination incentive and a way to boost the state’s tourism industry, which has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts predict leisure travel will come back strong in California, but business travel, which fills hotels during the critical off-season, is still a little up in the air.
Latest COVID-19 data
The County of San Diego held its last “regular” COVID-19 news conference yesterday after 15 months straight of briefings that were first daily, then a few times a week and more recently once a week. They’ll still provide updates as needed and keep their website updated weekly.
