Update, 12 p.m. Tuesday, April 4, 2023: On April 3, California health officials announced that the state will no longer require face masks to be worn in health care facilities and other high-risk settings. Additionally, health care workers are no longer required to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Individual counties still retain the authority to enforce their own additional public health restrictions separate from the state's. Some Bay Area counties, like Contra Costa and Alameda, will continue to require face masks in certain high-risk settings, like nursing facilities. Check your county's new 2023 masking rules.
Original story, June 2, 2022. Alameda County health officials announced Thursday that face masks will once again be required in most indoor public settings starting at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, regardless of vaccination status.
Alameda County lifted its mask mandate last February — but in a press release Thursday, health officials said COVID hospitalization rates have more than doubled in the last month, and that both hospitalizations and daily reported COVID cases now have exceeded their highest rates from last summer's delta variant surge.
"We expect to reach CDC’s 'High' COVID-19 Community Level soon," officials said in the press release.
"We cannot ignore the data, and we can’t predict when this wave may end," said Nicholas Moss, Alameda County health officer. "Putting our masks back on gives us the best opportunity to limit the impact of a prolonged wave on our communities."
Starting Friday, people in Alameda County will be required to wear a face mask in indoor businesses, restaurants and bars, government offices, bus and train stations, hospitals, and correctional centers and on public transportation. While this mandate will also include facilities that serve youth like indoor summer camps, it will not apply to K-12 schools.
Officials with San Francisco, San Mateo, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Marin, Sonoma and Solano counties told KQED on Thursday that they do not have plans to reinstate an indoor mask mandate at this time. These counties loosened their mask rules earlier this year to align with state guidelines.
The state also announced that, starting March 12, masks would not be required in schools and child care facilities, but were strongly recommended. Local communities can still determine their own rules on masking.
On May 20, Berkeley Unified School District announced that masks were once again required indoors at all BUSD schools through the end of the 2021-2022 school year due to increased COVID transmission. Read more about kids masking in schools.
Masks had also been required on public transit across the Bay Area, but on April 18, a federal judge in Florida ruled the federal travel mask mandate unlawful. The Transportation Security Administration later announced it would no longer enforce mask rules inside airports and airplanes and on public transportation. Accordingly, all Bay Area transit agencies dropped their own mask requirements — except BART, which reintroduced its own masking rules starting on July 28. Read more about mask rules on public transit.
Everyone — regardless of vaccination status — will still need to wear a mask in health care settings and congregate settings like correctional facilities, homeless shelters and long-term care facilities.
We'll continue to update this guide below with details for Bay Area counties as we confirm their decisions.
What's the difference between California's mask mandate and my county's?
Counties always have the ability to enact stricter mask rules than the state — so if your county had a mask mandate that’s more restrictive than state rules, that’s the one you had to follow.
That's why when Santa Clara County officials announced they would keep more restrictive mask rules in place after the state's mask mandate expired on Feb. 15, those who work, live and learn in that county still had to follow county rules, despite the statewide mandate ending.
