LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — With Lake County’s COVID-19 case rate surpassing every other California county and continuing to climb, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution urging community members to take extra precautions by continuing to wear masks while indoors at public places.
The action puts Lake in the company of several Bay Area counties — Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Sonoma — as well as the city of Berkeley, who are recommending that everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks indoors in public places as an extra precautionary measure.
Last week, Los Angeles County reinstituted its mask mandate, requiring masking indoors for everyone, as cases there began to rise.
These actions come more than a month after California fully reopened following 15 months of shelter in place orders, lockdowns and business closures.
On June 15, the same day as the state's official reopening, the California Department of Public Health issued guidance that says face masks are not required for fully vaccinated individuals except under narrowly prescribed circumstances.
However, in recent weeks COVID-19 cases have begun to rise again across the state, with the highly transmissible Delta variant quickly spreading and making its way into more communities, including Lake County.
Last week, Sarah Marikos, Lake County’s epidemiologist, told the board that testing positivity and the case rate were rising. At that time, Lake County’s daily case rate, over a seven-day average, was 10.3 cases per 100,000, the highest daily case rate in the state.
District 5 Supervisor Jessica Pyska brought the resolution urging the public to continue masking in indoor settings to the board as an extra item on Tuesday morning.
She explained in her memo to her fellow supervisors the worsening COVID-19 conditions. “After the posting of our agenda, I learned that our case rate per 100,000 is the highest of all California counties at 17. The state average is 6.9. In addition, at 11.8%, our testing positivity rate is more than twice the state average of 4.9%.”
By late Tuesday, that daily case rate had climbed higher still, to 20 per 100,000, far surpassing other counties in the state, according to data posted on the California Department of Public Health’s COVID-19: California Case Statistics website.
Lake County’s confirmed cases totaled 3,820 on Tuesday, with 135 cases active and 64 deaths, the Lake County Public Health Department reported.
Public Health also reported that Lake County’s weekly cases are at the highest numbers since the end of January.
At the same time, county health statistics show only 51% of residents are fully vaccinated.
Board supports action
The board voted unanimously to add Pyska’s resolution to the agenda and then brought it back for discussion about an hour after the start of the meeting.
“In the last week we’ve watched our case rate and our positivity rate go up quite significantly in our county,” Pyska said.
She said it’s time to go the extra mile to protect ourselves and our loved ones.
“All we’re asking is that you consider wearing a mask when you’re indoors in a public setting. And that is just the simplicity of this resolution. It is not a mandate. We’re not taking this conversation any further,” she said.
Pyska added, “This is a time when we need to have our guard up and this is a real situation our country is dealing with.”
There was public comment that began to be a back and forth more about the COVID-19 vaccine than masking as a precautionary measure.
When some speakers invoked words such as “genocide” and censorship,” Supervisor EJ Crandell indicated his frustration, as his Pomo ancestors in Lake County actually survived genocide attempts.
He took issue with people throwing around those words, similar to how Supervisor Moke Simon — a member of Middletown Rancheria — had voiced his offense at COVID-19 vaccine being compared to a method of genocide last week by a member of the public.
Supervisor Tina Scott thanked Pyska for bringing the proposal forward. “It’s been a really rough year and a half,” said Scott.
Scott said now is the time for people to protect those around them, and questioned how people can be so selfish.
Simon said we’re still in the pandemic. He urged those who aren’t going to get the vaccine to please wear face masks.
Pyska offered the resolution after a discussion that ran a little more than 20 minutes, with the board voting 5-0.
The resolution can be viewed below.
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