As COVID-19 cases fall, San Francisco leads way in easing mask rule

As COVID-19 cases driven by the super-contagious omicron variant subside, San Francisco took the first step toward easing pandemic restrictions with plans announced Thursday to loosen it’s indoor face mask requirement next month.

Starting Feb. 1, office San Francisco workers, gym members and other small, vaccinated and boosted “stable cohorts” of people may remove masks indoors again, reinstating the local mask exemption that was in place before the latest omicron surge.

“As we come out of this latest surge and face a future in which COVID-19 will remain among us, San Francisco will take a balanced approach in our response to COVID-19,” said San Francisco Health Officer Dr. Susan Philip in a statement. “San Francisco can be further ahead in easing restrictions, such as the indoor mask exemption for stable cohorts, given our highly vaccinated and boosted population.”

There were no indications Thursday among other Bay Area counties of similarly loosening face mask requirements indoors.

But globally, other countries also have been dropping restrictions amid hopeful signs the winter case spike is ebbing, despite some concerns about an omicron sub-lineage, BA.2, that has been spreading anew in Europe and the U.S., including a couple cases in Santa Clara County.

Denmark’s prime minister announced the country starting Feb. 1 will “say goodbye to the restrictions” including mask mandates “and welcome the life we knew before.” England this week also ended requirements for face masks in crowded indoor spaces and vaccine or test proof for large venues.

In San Francisco, the change comes amid a dip in the omicron case spike. San Francisco saw cases peak Jan. 9 at a 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people of 255.6. It was at 136.4 Wednesday. The statewide figure was 225 Wednesday, down from 282.2 Jan. 16.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends wearing a mask indoors in public where there’s substantial or high transmission of the virus, defined as 50 or more new cases per 100,000 people over the last seven days. At the moment, that’s every California county and U.S. state.

California enacted a statewide indoor face mask requirement in June 2020 and lifted it along with other pandemic restrictions a year later in a broad reopening as cases dropped.

When the fast-spreading delta variant drove a summer case surge, seven of the nine Bay Area County health departments reinstated indoor mask mandates last August, saying they would lift when local case rates, hospitalizations and vaccination rates dropped.

But San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin and Sonoma counties subsequently carved out exceptions for small groups of fully vaccinated people in places like gyms and workplaces.

California allowed those local exemptions to remain when Gov. Newsom in mid-December reinstated the statewide indoor mask requirement amid a new winter case surge driven by the faster spreading omicron variant.

But by the end of December, the Bay Area counties that had allowed exemptions for small vaccinated groups rescinded them and aligned with the statewide requirement for everyone age 2 and up to wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination through Feb. 15.

And on Jan. 11, Sonoma County went even farther, banning gatherings of 50 or more people indoors and 100 or more outdoors, as well as gatherings of 12 or more people considered high risk for severe COVID-19 illness, through Feb. 11.

That’s posed some hardship on entertainment venues. Rick Nowlin, president of the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts, said Thursday the venue had to reschedule eight large-scale events through Feb. 11 to comply, but said the “health of our community is paramount.”

“We thank our patrons and the artists for their flexibility, patience, and understanding,” Nowlin said.

Though other Bay Area counties didn’t join in the gathering restrictions, they weren’t eager to resume even the exception to the mask requirement for small vaccinated groups.

Contra Costa County spokesman Karl Fischer said the county “is aligned with the state guidance regarding indoor masking” and “has no plans to change any current health orders.” The county’s 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people was 177.7 Wednesday, down from 227.3 Jan. 9.

In Alameda County, health spokeswoman Neetu Balram said that “case rates and hospitalizations in Alameda County continue to be much higher than when that local order was first introduced.” Alameda County’s 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people was 194.4 Wednesday, down from 247.6 Jan. 9 but well above the 22.3 on Aug. 1.

Marin and Sonoma counties did not indicate any plans Thursday to make changes.

San Francisco Health Officer Philip did tighten the original exemption for small vaccinated groups by adding a booster requirement, a nod to “the highly transmissible nature of the variant.”

Check back for updates.