Hospital Mask Mandates Come Back in California’s Bay Area: What We Know

A health care professional prepares to enter a patient's room, in this file photo. Megan Jelinger/AFP via Getty Images

Multiple counties in California’s San Francisco Bay Area region reinstated mask mandates in health care settings starting Nov. 1, while other municipalities have recommended face coverings.

Counties with mask requirements for employees include San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Napa, and San Mateo. But Santa Clara County, which includes San Jose, and San Mateo County also require visitors and patients in those health care facilities to wear masks.

Those mandates, which were announced weeks or months ago, run from Nov. 1, 2024, until March 31, 2025. A similar mandate was imposed across the Bay Area during the 2023–24 winter and spring months.

Health Care Orders Issued

Santa Clara County announced it will require all people inside health care facilities, including visitors and patients, to wear masks from Nov. 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025.

The county said it is making exceptions for children under age 2 and for people with medical issues that make it difficult for them to breathe in a mask or to remove a mask without assistance.

“Preventive measures like wearing a mask in crowded indoor places and staying home when you are sick continue to add layers of protection against respiratory viruses,” the county said in a statement in September.

“Just like last year, the April 2023 health order will continue to require masks in all patient care areas of health care facilities starting November 1 and continuing through the winter respiratory virus period.”

In early October, San Mateo County mandated “health care personnel and visitors in patient care areas of skilled nursing facilities to wear face masks,” adding that the county health officer has the ability to “adjust the dates.”

Alameda County, which encompasses Oakland, issued an order in September that requires staff at health care facilities to wear masks throughout the rest of the year and the early spring.

“The fall and winter of 2023–2024 saw substantial waves of RSV, flu and COVID19, and a similar pattern is expected this year,” Alameda officials said in the order, adding that those respiratory infections “typically circulate and peak in Alameda County during the late fall and winter months.”

Authorities in Contra Costa County issued a similar health order on Sept. 26, mandating health care staff, but not patients, to wear masks until March 31 of next year.

“The masking of personnel in these facilities is necessary to provide a layer of protection to patients during the respiratory season when risk of exposure is highest,” the county said.

Napa County released a health order on Oct. 1 for a similar mandate, only requiring staff to wear masks in facilities.

California Hospital Reinstates Mandate

Aside from government mandates, a hospital system in Monterey, California, reinstated a mandate for patients, visitors, and staff.

In a statement issued on Oct. 29, Montage Health wrote that masks will be mandated “for everyone” who enters Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula patient care areas regardless of their vaccination status.

Other locations operated by Montage Health will only impose a mask recommendation, not a mandate, the company said.

NYC Offers Recommendation, but No Mandate

Earlier this week, New York City’s Department of Health suggested in a post on X that residents wear masks ahead of the flu season and to protect against COVID-19. The department suggested that people use respirator-style masks such as KN95s, KF94s, or N95s.

“Wearing a mask in crowded indoor settings can help protect you from viruses like COVID-19 and the flu this season. Masking up also protects others if you’re sick,” the department said in the Oct. 28 post.

Some studies have found that masking did not make much difference in reducing the risk of contracting COVID-19 during the pandemic.

The Cochrane Institute, in a review issued in early 2023, found that “wearing a mask may make little to no difference in how many people caught a flu‐like illness” or COVID-19.

However, studies cited by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said that face masks and respirator-style masks “effectively filter virus-sized particles in laboratory settings” and that “use of respirators with higher filtration capacity was associated with the most protection, compared with no mask use.”

But, it added, “The real-world effectiveness of face coverings to prevent acquisition of SARS-CoV-2 infection has not been widely studied.”