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Prior to the statewide mask mandate going into effect Dec. 15 amid the omicron surge, eight Bay Area counties — San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Marin, Sonoma and Napa — issued their own mask mandates in response to the delta variant, and devised a set of shared criteria for lifting these mandates. Solano County did not join the other counties, and the county’s website confirms masks will no longer be required after Feb. 15.

Of the eight counties with their own mandates, only Marin County was able to satisfy the three conditions to lift its mandate before the statewide mandate came down in December. 

SFGATE reached out to all eight of those Bay Area counties and asked whether they would stick with the original shared criteria or lift the mandate Feb. 16 along with other counties in the state. Notably, no counties recommitted to the shared criteria.

San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa and Santa Clara

San Francisco demurred last week when asked about its future masking plans, and said Tuesday it is discussing “next steps” with other counties.

“San Francisco is currently evaluating our local situation based on cases, hospitalizations, and vaccination citywide including booster doses, and is consulting with our regional and state partners on next steps regarding our indoor masking requirements,” the San Francisco Department of Public Health said in a statement.

“In Contra Costa County, we are in the process of evaluating our county masking requirements in light of the upcoming changes to state guidance and will announce any changes to local orders as soon as they are finalized,” a spokesperson for Contra Costa County wrote in an email.

“Alameda County case rates and hospitalizations continue to decline,” a spokesperson for Alameda County wrote in an email. “We are monitoring these metrics and evaluating the role of our local face masking order in light of the expected State mask policy changes. We will provide an update to residents before February 15.”

Santa Clara County said an update will come during a Board of Supervisors meeting later Tuesday. During that board meeting, Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody said she had no update to provide.

Marin

Marin County Public Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis told SFGATE in January his county will no longer be using case rates to set public policy, making it the first (and only) Bay Area county that adopted the shared criteria to publicly ditch that requirement.

“We’d be looking at hospitalizations as our primary indicator, and importantly, hospitalizations ‘for COVID,’ where it’s directly attributable to the virus,” Willis said. “That’d be the primary metric we’d be looking to.”

The county’s deputy public health officer told the Marin Independent Journal masks will longer be required after Feb. 15.

“Marin no longer has a local health order around masking, so we’ll align with the state,” Dr. Lisa Santora said.

Sonoma 

Sonoma County did not return an SFGATE request for comment, but county Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase told the Press Democrat that while case rates are moving “in the right direction,” virus transmission is still widespread.

“We’re discussing next steps now with other Bay Area counties, we’ll know better by that time what direction we’re going,” Mase said.

San Mateo and Napa

San Mateo and Napa counties also did not return SFGATE requests for comment.

San Mateo County’s health department has its own dashboard displaying the county’s progress in meeting the shared criteria. It was last updated earlier this week and shows the county does not meet the case or hospitalization requirements.