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Bay Area fitness officials, plus Sonoma County fitness officer Dr. Sundari Mase, met Monday night to discuss mask wear, as the region faces a growing confluence of coronavirus, flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases.
Assembly routine, however, obscures a key topic of discussion, Sonoma County spokesman Matt Brown said.
“Politics is the priority,” Brown said.
The assembly came as a strong wave of flu and RSV cases, in particular, has hit hospitals in the region, and COVID-19 cases are rising across the country.
In the Bay Area, an emerging rate of COVID-19 cases has taken Santa Clara County to the next level, where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that others wear masks in public.
Napa, Solano, Contra Costa and Alameda counties have moved to the middle tier, where universal mask wearing is required in high-risk settings, adding prisons and homeless shelters, state rules.
As of Monday, Sonoma County remained at the declining level, with 1165 active cases, or about 23 of the county’s 488,863 residents, according to county data.
The county is not subject to any local mask mandate, but mask rules could be replaced if the county moves on to the next point, Brown said. CDC case information and point designations are updated every Thursday.
Throughout the pandemic, fitness staff from all nine Bay Area counties met to discuss trends and strategies, and added mask recommendations. Sonoma County’s measures have mirrored those of other counties in the region, but the county has deviated at least once before. .
Dr. Mase is the time leading up to the next update to prepare for any changes, Brown said.
If the county moves to the middle tier, it would cause mask-wearing orders for citizens at gathering places, adding homeless shelters and the Sonoma County jail, Brown said.
Some homeless service providers have kept their mask since the last wave of COVID-19.
Catholic nonprofit charities in Santa Rosa are one such provider that has stayed true to indoor mask wearing at various sites, adding Sonoma County’s largest homeless shelter, Sam Jones Hall in Santa Rosa, as well as the circle of Catholic charities’ family members. In the middle at the new Caritas centre, said Jennie Lynn Holmes, executive director of the nonprofit.
“Most of the other people we serve have pre-existing conditions that make something as common as the flu or now COVID-19 can cause serious long-term fitness issues, and they are at great risk of complications,” Holmes said. And as such, we have to take that into account. “
Holmes said the organization plans to review its mask requirement in early 2023 at the end of flu and bloodless season.
Editor-in-Chief Emma Murphy can be reached at 707-521-5228 or emma. murphy@pressdemocrat. com. On Twitter @MurphReports.
County Government, Political Journalist
Click here for the latest COVID-19 knowledge for Sonoma County.
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