Indoor businesses in Contra Costa County, including gyms and restaurants, no longer have to ask customers to provide proof of full COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test.
Contra Costa Health Services lifted the order on Friday, a day after 80% of Contra Costa County residents had become fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Just under half of county residents who are at least 12 years old (48.4%) have received a booster dose, according to public health officials.
The county first implemented the requirement last September, when the delta variant was the dominant coronavirus strain and children under the age of 12 were still not eligible to get vaccinated. Although county officials said cases remain high with the omicron variant now dominant, hospitalizations have started to decline and they believe cases likely have peaked.
"We believe now is the right time to loosen a requirement that made a lot of sense last summer, when a different variant of COVID-19 was dominant and there was less community immunity," Dr. Ori Tzvieli, acting Contra Costa County Health Officer said in Friday's release.
"But by no means are we back to normal," Tzvieli continued. "There are still many more cases of COVID-19 in our community now than there were in mid-December, so we need to continue to take precautions when we go out."
Contra Costa County averaged 1,431.6 new cases per day during the week ending Jan. 27, when county data was most recently available. The seven-day average peaked at 454.4 last summer, and 767.7 last winter, when vaccines weren't as widely available. Contra Costa County's most recent test positivity rate, 17.5%, is also higher than the peaks of last summer (8.7%) and last winter (11.2%), respectively.
Unvaccinated residents continue to test positive and become hospitalized at far higher rates than their vaccinated and boosted counterparts. On the week ending Jan. 27, 222.6 per 100,000 unvaccinated residents tested positive each day, compared to 116 per 100,000 fully vaccinated residents and 65.4 per 100,000 boosted residents.
"We deeply appreciate everyone who has chosen to vaccinate," Contra Costa Health Director Anna Roth said in a statement. "You have made yourselves, your loved ones, and the entire community safer. If you are eligible and you have not gotten your booster, it is really important that you get one. People who get boosted are significantly safer from serious COVID-19."
The county's decision could clear the way for a popular fast food chain to seat customers indoors again.
In-N-Out Burger closed all five of its locations to indoor dining back in October, after county officials closed the Pleasant Hill location for failing to enforce the proof-of-vaccine mandate. The company, which donated $40,000 to the California Republican Party two months before the unsuccessful recall election of Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, said at the time it "refused to become the vaccination police for any government."
Related
