Vaccinated Californians Can Largely Ditch Masks June 15

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) --- Vaccinated Californians can finally ditch their masks while dining, shopping or attending concerts beginning June 15, state officials announced Wednesday.

Thanks to a precipitous drop in Covid-19 hospitalizations and with over half the state’s eligible population fully vaccinated, next week California will join the rest of the country and adopt the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s mask rules. As part of the “grand reopening plan” long touted by Governor Gavin Newsom, universal masking will remain inside classrooms, public transit and health care settings.

Offering likely welcome news for over 18 million vaccinated residents, California Health and Human Services chief Mark Ghaly said the state is tracking well for its much ballyhooed reopening.

“Fully vaccinated people can resume everyday activities without wearing a mask except in a few limited settings,” Ghaly said in a press call. “Individuals who are not fully vaccinated must continue to wear masks in indoor public settings.”  

Masks in public settings have been required since June 2020, when Newsom said the now-commonplace pandemic gizmos were needed to stave off a looming summer infection wave. Though the state ultimately languished through two more devastating stretches, it has clearly turned the corner.

As of the latest pandemic update, just 1,015 people were hospitalized with Covid-19 along with a 0.7% positivity rate, a sharp downturn from last winter when daily totals peaked at over 50,000 cases and more than one in 10 coronavirus tests returned positive.

To go along with ample hospital bed capacity, Ghaly said the decision is also prompted by the fact there is clearly enough vaccine supply for the remaining holdouts.

The CDC generally considers people fully vaccinated two weeks after their second dose in a two-dose series shot, like those issued by PfizerBioNTech or Moderna, and two weeks after receiving the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The CDC’s mask guidance has been out for more than a month and adopted by most states, but California continued with its strict guidance anyways even as Covid-19 cases and deaths plummeted.  

Ghaly defended the decision to wait last month, saying more time was needed to prep private businesses for the demasking process and allow California to creep closer to herd immunity.

“There’s very little wait, we’re trying to make it as easy as possible,” Ghaly pitched to the millions still on the fence.

Under the state’s new mask guidelines, businesses and entertainment venues will be in control of whether they want customers to wear masks or not.

Effective June 15, private operators can simply ask customers to self-attest their vaccine status or take a stricter approach and adopt a verification system. Otherwise, wary businesses will have the ability to require masks for all customers regardless of vaccination status.

Meanwhile businesses won’t be allowed to discriminate against vaccinated customers choosing to wear masks.

Ghaly said he’s not overly concerned that customers will abuse the so-called “honor system” and that it was important to give businesses flexibility when it comes to future mask policies.

“All systems of verification are fraught with some challenges,” Ghaly acknowledged. “Business owners do have a choice…some very well may decide the honor system is not sufficient and they’re going to require all patrons to wear masks.”

During a press call, Ghaly said the state will continue to tweak its rules based on future CDC guidance and that the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board will vote late Wednesday on new workplace requirements.

Going forward, fully vaccinated Californians can go mask-free except on public transit, indoor school settings, childcare facilities, homeless shelters as well as inside jails and prisons.  

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