Stanislaus County stays course with masks as COVID-19 cases, deaths start climbing
As COVID-19 cases increase locally and state and federal officials recommend that even the fully vaccinated wear masks in public settings indoors, Stanislaus County is maintaining its current guidelines of stating the fully vaccinated may want to wear one.
The California Department of Public Health on Wednesday recommended that the fully vaccinated wear masks in public settings indoors because of the growing presence of the much more contagious Delta variant in the state.
And the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday recommended the fully vaccinated wear masks indoors in public settings in communities where the Delta variant is dominant.
Stanislaus County spokeswoman Amy Carroll said Friday that county public health is in fact following the state guidelines.
She pointed to county public health’s July 19 news release that stated “with this highly Delta variant spreading, fully vaccinated people may want the extra protection of wearing a mask indoors.”
The news release also recommends the fully vaccinated wear masks if they or another member of their household is 65 and older, has a lowered immune system or risk factors for COVID-19.
The release added that unvaccinated people are required to wear masks indoors, according to a state mandate.
Carroll said Stanislaus County has consistently followed the California Department of Public Health during the pandemic, doing neither more nor less than what state public health recommends.
County “Public Health is monitoring all new cases as they come in,” she said in a Friday text message. “We’ll be following the CDPH recommendations and we will be keeping a close eye on any updates that they make.”
Officials say while vaccines remain highly effective and greatly limit the severity of COVID-19, there have been breakthrough cases among the fully vaccinated with the Delta variant. The concern is they can then infect others. The California Department of Public Health said in its news release the variant is “two times as contagious than early COVID-19 variants, leading to increasing infections.”
Stanislaus County reported four more deaths Friday, for a total of 1,095 since April 2020. Ten of them have been reported since Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the county’s hospitals had 106 patients with confirmed COVID-19 on Friday, following 100 each the previous two days. This is about three times the count in mid-July by the county Health Services Agency. It topped 300 during the worst of the pandemic last winter.
Modesto Bee staff writer John Holland contributed to this report.
This story was originally published August 1, 2021 at 5:49 AM.
