SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — After weeks of insisting fully vaccinated people could shed face coverings in most situations, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reversed course Tuesday and recommended mask-wearing indoors for everyone, regardless of vaccination status, in areas experiencing "high" or "substantial" COVID-19 transmission.
Citing new information about the ability of the delta variant to spread among vaccinated people, the CDC also recommended indoor masks for all teachers, staff, students and visitors to schools, regardless of vaccination status.
"New research reveals the Delta variant is much more transmissible and expected to lead to a growing number of cases in vaccinated individuals while primarily striking the unvaccinated," San Diego County said in a press release.
San Diego County will follow the latest CDC guidance in recommending to wear masks by both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals in indoor public settings.
"Masks are an added measure," San Diego County said in a press release. "Vaccinations are critical for getting back to the things we love."
Solare restaurant owner Randy Smerik in Liberty Station said it's truly been one thing after another in the pandemic.
“We came back again, and then there were staffing issues, and we had to address that, and now we're back to again worrying about masks. We made the decision based on the announcement today and even earlier, that we we will still remain fully masked as a staff here at Solare, but it is hard after all this time,” Smerik said.
Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties are all currently listed by the CDC as having "high" transmission rates.
Los Angeles County implemented a mask-wearing mandate in indoor public settings for everyone earlier this month, citing spiking cases attributed to spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19. It was not immediately clear if other local counties will impose similar mandates now that the CDC is recommending indoor mask-wearing for all.
Dr. Yaneer Bar-Yam of New England Complex Systems Institute said vaccination is not a solution to the problem, but it is part of the solution to the problem, and masks are another part.
“What we really need to do is to have mask wearing everywhere and not just the high-Covid areas because what’s going to happen is the places with less transmission are going to become high transmission if we don’t wear masks,” Bar-Yam said.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky announced the change Tuesday, saying the Delta variant "behaves uniquely different from past strains of the virus that cause COVID-19."
She called rapid spread of the COVID variant "worrisome," and said its behavior "warrants an update to our recommendations."
Grandmother and retired nurse Pat Hulsebos always keeps a mask handy just in case.
“It's for the better good, I do not want my family to get it, so if they tell me to wear this mask again, I won't be happy with those people who caused this, the ones who didn't wear their masks and didn't get vaccine,” Hulsebos said.
Mask-wearing has remained a requirement indoors across California for unvaccinated people. However, enforcement of the requirement was based largely on the honor system, making it uncertain if unvaccinated residents were abiding by the rule.
Where does the CDC recommend everyone wear masks indoors?
Substantial transmission means there's been 50-100 cases per 100,000 over a 7-day period and high transmission means an area has seen more than 100 cases per 100,000 over a 7-day period, Walensky explained.
The agency's online data tracker features a color-coded interactive map that shows different levels of community transmission. In the color-coded map, orange reflects substantial community transmission and red indicates high transmission.
More than 2,000 U.S. counties would fall under CDC's new recommendations, the agency's data shows as of Tuesday afternoon.
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