California state officials announced Monday that they will no longer require visitors to nursing homes to pass COVID-19 testing. Next week, similar restrictions will be lifted on large events. They also plan to eliminate the indoor face mask mandate.
One group of Californians, the 6 million schoolchildren in the state, won’t be exempted from the pandemic rules. California’s mandate that students wear masks in classrooms and other schools buildings is still in effect, although New Jersey announced Monday that it would end the same requirement.
“Omicron has loosen its grip on California, vaccines are available for children under 5, and access to COVID-19 treatment is improving,” stated Dr. Tomas J. Aragon. “Things are moving in the right direction. We are making responsible modifications and developing a longer-term plan for the state’s COVID-19 prevention actions.
Dr. George Rutherford is an infectious disease specialist at University of California-San Francisco. He said that although the country has “really turned a corner” in the winter cases surge, there’s still a lot of infection. Rutherford stated Monday that the state’s plan was the “right decision.”
In an interview Monday, Dr. Rita Hamad, a colleague at UCSF, stated that “it will definitely come time to lift the mandates in schools as omicron fades.” She also noted that the risk of severe illness and death is lower due to vaccines and high immunity for prior infections.
Hamad stated, “It’s high time to bring children as normal as possible in their language and socioemotional development.”
Monday’s announcement by the public health department stated that California is continuing to work with education and public health leaders to improve masking requirements at schools in order to adapt to changing circumstances and ensure safety for children, teachers, staff, and their families.
This didn’t go down well with parents advocates, who lost patience with the requirement for children and adults to continue to cover up in all K-12 buildings. Bar patrons and diners are allowed to take off their masks when eating or drinking indoors.
Megan Bacigalupi is Executive Director CA Parent Power. She said that California’s children have not known a regular school day in almost two years. Her sons attend Oakland Unified schools.
Bacigalupi stated that “with vaccines, treatments, and immunity from the Omicron surge,” the onus now lies on public health officials, to show the benefits outweigh any harms. “Many parents don’t believe so and have asked the state leadership to make them available to adults when restrictions are lifted for them next week.”
Although the statewide rules are less restrictive, local health officials could still impose restrictions. Los Angeles County will host the Super Bowl. This weekend, it requires that people who attend large indoor or outdoor events must wear masks.
Sonoma County in the Bay Area is likely to let public gathering restrictions expire Friday. However, many county health officials have mask requirements and it is not clear Monday if those will be changed with the state’s rule.
California had previously removed most of its COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in order to reopen businesses. This was because vaccinations increased and new diseases declined. Except for students, all people who were not vaccinated needed to use face masks indoors.
California, however, reinstituted the indoor mask requirement in all public areas regardless of vaccination after the highly transmissible COVID-19 Omicron variant sent case numbers soaring last autumn. It also extended it through February 15.
The state will let go of its requirement to test visitors to nursing homes on Monday. The state will also eliminate its requirement to conduct negative tests and vaccinate indoor events of 1,000 or less people on Feb. 15. Also, the state will no longer recommend a vaccine or negative test for indoor events with 10,000 people or less.
California’s February decision to reduce some restrictions comes as case rates fall but remain stubbornly high. This complicates the calculation of when it makes sense for California to ease them.
Since January, the state has seen a steady decline in community transmission. Hospitalizations have been declining or plateauing in many parts of the state. The state’s case rates have fallen to 65% since the omicron surge peak in California last month.
Despite this being good news, the case rates are still at their highest level since the outbreak of the pandemic. The whole U.S. and all urban California counties are at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention red transmission level. This means that there have been more than 100 cases per 100,000 people within the past seven days. Monday’s transmission rate in California was 933/100,000. This is three times more than New Jersey where the governor. Phil Murphy announced Monday that the statewide mandate to schools and child care centers will be lifted by March 7.
New York’s case rate Monday was 265/100,000. Over the past seven days, the statewide mask mandate will expiree on Thursday.
Andrew Noymer, an epidemiologist at UC-Irvine and a demographer, stated that health officials are stuck in a tough spot. They have to impose rules that can protect public health, but not so much that people won’t follow them.
Noymer stated that the rules should not be stricter than what people do in real life. “The rules then become a joke and you won’t ever have to impose them again.” “I will still be wearing masks in a lot of grocery shops. … The state is facing some very difficult choices right now.
