Fifteen months after issuing the country’s first ban on mass gatherings amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Santa Clara County on Monday announced it will phase out the last of its major coronavirus-related restrictions.
The county rescinded its local health order from last month, just days after the Cal/OSHA board voted to no longer require vaccinated workers to wear masks indoors.
As of Monday, the county no longer requires vaccinated employees to wear masks indoors, provided they’re working for businesses and government entities that have completed two rounds of determining workers’ vaccination status.
"If you are not fully vaccinated it is important to continue to wear face coverings indoors," Dr. Sara Cody, the county public health officer, said in a statement. "But if you are among the 70% of those age 12 and older in Santa Clara County who are fully vaccinated, you generally do not need to wear a face covering."
Masks are still required in a number of settings, including on public transportations as well as in schools and childcare, but the county lifting its last health order represents the culmination of its aggressive efforts to curb the pandemic.
Not long after confirming what was thought to be the county’s first coronavirus-related death, Cody and officials announced a ban on mass gatherings of over 1,000 people on March 10, 2020. Not even a week later, Santa Clara County was one of six in the Bay Area to issue the nation’s first shelter-in-place order,
On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the county then barred professional, recreational and youth sports while also requiring a 14-day quarantine for people traveling into the county from over 150 miles away. Days later, Santa Clara County became one of five in the Bay Area to implement Gov. Gavin Newsom’s updated stay-at-home order.
But on Dec. 17, 2020, Santa Clara County first began vaccinating frontline workers against COVID-19. Just over six months later, the county said Monday it has fully vaccinated 71% of eligible residents.
The county said that rate, according to CDC data, is the highest among large counties in the U.S.
"The evidence is increasingly clear that getting fully vaccinated is the best thing you can do to keep yourself, your family, and our community safe from COVID-19," Cody said. "The vaccines work well, even against variants, but it is important to get your second dose if you’re getting a two-dose vaccine because that second dose makes a real difference."
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