People wear face masks walking down Chestnut Street in San Francisco, Calif. on Jan. 4, 2022.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATEThe state of California’s indoor mask mandate, which was issued on Dec. 15 and later extended through Feb. 15, will indeed expire on Feb. 15, officials announced Monday.
The most important question now is which individual counties will choose to also end local mask mandates on Feb. 15, as state law requires that counties follow state mandates if the state mandates are more restrictive. With the statewide mandate gone, control over masking policies returns to the counties.
Los Angeles County — as well as every Bay Area county except Solano — imposed their own masking requirements prior to the statewide mandate. Marin County briefly lifted its indoor mask mandate, but then was required by the state to bring it back on Dec, 15. Other counties such as Sacramento and Santa Cruz have also introduced mask mandates in response to variants.
The Bay Area counties previously established a shared criteria for lifting the indoor mask mandate, but Marin County has said it will no longer use the case-based criterion and San Francisco County also refused to commit to the case requirement. Los Angeles County recently announced case-based criteria for lifting its indoor mask mandate.
The plans of other counties are unknown at this time.
The other lingering question is the fate of the statewide mask mandate for schools, which counties are also bound to follow. On Monday, Democratic-led states such as New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut and Oregon announced plans to ditch their school mask mandates.
California will still require that unvaccinated residents wear masks in all indoor spaces, though it is unclear how that will be enforced.
This story is developing and will be updated as more information is made available.