Mask mandate downgraded to strong recommendation

March 7, 2022 — The county indoor mask mandate is now a strong recommendation, though the most recent health order consists largely of reasons residents should follow Public Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren’s advice to continue masking in indoor spaces. Businesses are still authorized to request that patrons mask up, and Coren expressed confidence in the community’s judgment after years of education about maintaining the health of the people around them. People do appear to have taken more responsibility for their own testing, which has led to fewer publicly available data points. But Coren stressed that he believes that local hospitals are now less likely to be overwhelmed by covid patients. Schools continue to follow the advice of the California Department of Public Health and the Department of Education, and are not expected to change their masking policy until the fourteenth.