Don't expect San Francisco to ease its COVID-19 indoor mask mandate anytime soon.
Dr. Grant Colfax, Director of Public Health for the city, said Tuesday night at a community meeting that some high-risk settings could require masks "for the foreseeable future." The San Francisco Chronicle first reported his comments, in which San Francisco's top health official said he envisions mandates will be removed along a "gradation."
Currently, the city requires adults and children aged 10 or older to wear masks in public indoor settings. Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Sonoma counties announced the same requirement early last month, as did the City of Berkeley, due to the delta variant.
Napa County issued the same requirement days later.
"Right now, we're on a positive path downward in terms of cases and hospitalizations," Colfax told KCBS Radio's Kathy Novak on Tuesday. "We're looking at it and we're going to be continuing to determine the best time to potentially roll back some of the indoor mask mandates, but right now we're not prepared to do that."
California and Connecticut are the only states averaging fewer than 100 cases per 100,000 residents over the last seven days, which is what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers "substantial" spread. San Francisco is still experiencing "substantial" spread, and the city said 82% of eligible residents were fully vaccinated as of Monday.
Colfax reiterated the current mandates will remain until children aged 5-11 can become vaccinated, which he called "a major step forward."
That could happen as soon as next month after Pfizer announced on Tuesday it intended to apply for an emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in submitting data showing the drugmaker's two-dose vaccine was safe and effective for children in that age range.
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