This was the day before the World Health Organization issued new guidelines, which stated that vaccinated people should still wear masks indoors.
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Los Angeles County public health officials have issued similar guidelines to encourage wearing masks indoors.
The biggest question now is-will the Bay Area follow suit?
Well, it really depends on who you ask.
“I don’t think so,” said Dr. Christine Wu, the health officer of Solano County. “I think the World Health Organization made their recommendations because they have to provide guidance on a global scale, and the level of vaccination in many countries is not as high as ours.”
Dr. Monika Gandhi, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, San Francisco, joined ABC7’s “Get Answers” program on Tuesday to answer the same questions.
She said that the COVID-19 vaccine covers Delta variants well, and said that the CDC has no intention of changing its guidelines on wearing masks.
“There is nothing to tell us that our vaccine does not work against the Delta variant,” she said.
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Data released by Moderna on Tuesday Shows that its vaccine may be resistant to variants of COVID-19 including Delta.
The Delta variant has spread to more than 80 countries, and the World Health Organization predicts that it will soon become the most dominant virus strain in the United States, accounting for about 20% of US cases.
Dr. Gandhi reiterated the effectiveness of the vaccine and said that she would not wear a mask indoors unless the company also requires her.
Part of the reason for her decision is that transmission rates in the Bay Area and California are still low.
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UCSF epidemiologist Dr. George Rutherford said that the infectivity of the variant strain may be 70% to 75% higher than that of the first detected variant.
“The Delta variant is bad news,” said Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. “It is much more communicative.”
He said that within the next month, the number of COVID cases in the state caused by the Delta variant will mostly double.
Rutherford said: “The worry here is that we can see small-scale Delta variants in people who are not vaccinated or not fully vaccinated.” “Special attention is paid to young people who are slower to vaccinate.”
State data show that the Delta variant accounted for 4.7% of COVID cases in California in May. This number has more than tripled this month, reaching 14.6%.
“The best way to prevent the acquisition of Delta variants is to vaccinate,” Rutherford added.
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In Southern California, Public health officials now require residents to wear masks indoors, even if they are vaccinated.
Officials said this is a preventive measure because it is a Delta variant.
Is this something we will see in the Bay Area soon? Dr. Gandhi doesn’t think so.
“I don’t think San Francisco or the Bay Area will follow suit,” she told ABC7.
Nearly 20 million people in California have been vaccinated, and this rate has slowed in recent months, especially in the northern counties around Mendocino and Humboldt.
According to our ABC7 vaccine tracker, these northern counties are marked in gray and white, indicating that only 20% to 40% of the county population is vaccinated.
“I think that as a state, we are likely to go back,” Rutherford said. “The entire northern county lags far behind the rest of the state in terms of vaccination.”
Can the Bay Area also be traced back?
Rutherford said: “Given our high vaccination rate, I think the possibility of a surge in the Bay Area is unlikely.”
Vaccine tracker: What is the situation in California and when will the coronavirus vaccine be available?
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