As California’s June 15 reopening quickly approaches, Humboldt County Public Health officials are preparing to lift masking guidelines amid a local resurgence of COVID-19.
Humboldt County Public Health Officer Dr. Ian Hoffman told reporters Wednesday that, despite the resurgence, public health supports the data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and will follow the California Department of Public Health’s direction in lifting masking requirements next month.
“I think the science is clear that the vaccine works that well,” Hoffman said during a news briefing. “The policy, however, needs some time to be created to make a space safe for vaccinated and unvaccinated people to be together. That’s what California is working on towards June 15 as we keep the current masking guidance in place and work out what will masking guidance look like after June 15.”
Hoffman said the state will largely align with the CDC’s current guidance.
“What you’re seeing from the CDC right now is what we will likely see … from California and from Humboldt County Public Health,” he said. “We also know that the Blueprint (for a Safer Economy) is going to retire — or most of it will — so we won’t see the restrictions on businesses, we won’t (see) the restrictions on capacity that we’ve had in place over the course of the pandemic.”
Humboldt County currently has one of the highest seven-day case rates in the state with 9.2 new cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents per day and a 4.2% positivity rate. Hoffman said the resurgence will likely persist through the summer and peak sometime in July and encouraged community members to get vaccinated ahead of the state’s reopening.
“My number one advice would be to get vaccinated before June 15 because it’s your number one tool, it’s the best tool we have when we look at the protection,” Hoffman said. “It’s extraordinarily strong and I don’t recommend lightly that a vaccinated person can go without a mask and public. I think that’s a true testament to how good this vaccine is.”
That being said, Hoffman noted that business owners will still have the freedom to require masks in their establishments and stores.
“To a certain degree, we’re going to be going back to that era we were in early in the pandemic where certain establishments declared themselves as ‘you have to wear a mask when you come into my establishment’ and others (did) not,” he said. “I think that will be a decision up to each (business owner), how they want to respond to that and how their customers in the public might respond to that.”
During the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, Public Health Director Michele Stephens said, in preparation for the upcoming fire season, the Joint Information Center will begin scaling back its operations following the state’s June 15 reopening.
“This is not necessarily a complete scaledown of the Public Health operation COVID response because, as we have mentioned, we (will be) looking at cases at this level probably well into the summertime,” Hoffman elaborated Wednesday. “This is also a preparation for wildfire season in our area which, as we all know, is likely to be one of the worst seasons yet given the drought conditions across the state and what we’ve seen over the last few years.”
“You’re not going to see much of a change, it’s more of a moving of some folks around to free them up for other needs and a lot of that’s been going on behind the scenes in smaller ways throughout the whole pandemic,” he added.
As the county moves forward, Emergency Operations Center operations chief Sofia Pereira said both the JIC and EOC will begin to decentralize operations in an effort to reach out to remote areas of the county.
“That era, so to speak, of doing mass vaccination where you have a static site where you’re doing very high volume (of vaccinations) in one particular place is not going to meet the needs of this community long-term,” Pereira said. “There’s needs in Petrolia, there’s needs in Honeydew, there’s needs in Orleans. We need to make sure that we’re reaching those that can’t make it to a vaccination site. … We now are going to be focusing on reaching the smaller, more remote communities in Humboldt County.”
Public health is also working on outreach to homebound individuals, Pereira added.
“Next week is actually the first week that we’ll be launching our mobile team to do homebound outreach,” she said. “We’ve already been connecting with folks that have either signed up through … the Joint Information Center that they weren’t aware of the My Turn feature and then we also did get a list from the state for people who (already) signed up through My Turn.”
Three Pfizer first-dose vaccination clinics are scheduled for residents ages 12 years and up at College of the Redwoods in Eureka from 2 to 6 p.m. May 20, May 27 and June 2. Residents can sign up at MyTurn.ca.gov. Appointments are encouraged but not required.
More information can be found at humboldtgov.org/VaccineInfo or by calling 707-441-5000.
Isabella Vanderheiden can be reached at 707-441-0504.
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