Sonoma County's latest COVID-19 vaccine milestone is a reminder of just how far the county has to go until it can lift its indoor mask requirement.
The county had administered over 700,000 vaccine doses as of Wednesday night, becoming just the 16th county in the state to cross that threshold. Although 77% of the county’s eligible population is now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, 67.3% of the county's full population is.
One of the three criteria announced Thursday for Sonoma County and seven others to drop its indoor mask mandate is for 80% of county residents to be fully vaccinated. If 80% of county residents aren’t fully vaccinated, Sonoma County can also lift the mandate eight weeks after federal and state officials approve vaccinations of 5-to-11-year-olds under an emergency authorization.
Reaching one of those benchmarks, plus three weeks of "moderate" spread as determined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the county health officer determining hospitalizations are low and stable, will allow the county to lift the mask mandate.
"We have worked hard to get to this point, but we cannot rest while many are needlessly exposed to a virus that preys upon their vulnerability," Dr. Sundari Mase, Sonoma County Health Officer, said in a release on Thursday. "People who remain unvaccinated are placing themselves and their families in danger and pose a risk to the rest of our community by making it easier for the virus to spread and mutate."
An emergency authorization for children younger than 12 isn’t expected before the end of the month, leaving open the possibility that Sonoma County’s mask mandate stays in place for the rest of 2021 if vaccination progress remains slow.
On July 6, Sonoma County announced 325,000 residents had been fully vaccinated. Three months later, as of Wednesday, 335,148 residents were fully vaccinated.
Excluding children who are too young, Sonoma County would need to fully vaccinate almost two-thirds (63%) of the 97,500 eligible residents who aren’t yet fully immunized in order to cross the 80% threshold. Vaccinating all of the 37,000 children not yet eligible for a dose would only get the county to about 77.5%.
Even if the county has "moderate" transmission – it's currently "substantial" – and Mase determines hospitalizations are acceptably low, reaching an 80% full vaccination rate within eight weeks of an emergency authorization will require the county to vaccinate far more people than it is now.
"The vaccine is safe, effective and widely available for free. Most importantly, it is saving lives," Dr. Mase said in a release. "By bolstering our natural immune systems, it is keeping people out of the hospital and protecting them from the worst effects of COVID-19."
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