CA Reopens: 4 Things To Know About Mask Rules

CALIFORNIA — Californians have had to wear face coverings in public and among others for nearly a year and a half. But after months of encouraging trends, the state will finally reopen Tuesday and masks will no longer be a primary accessory for vaccinated residents.

This week, California's mask mandate will expire and the state will align with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on mask guidance. Months ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom set his sights on June 15 as California's grand reopening day as the state's coronavirus positivity rate sank among the lowest in the nation.

"With California reopening tomorrow — no more physical distancing requirements, no more caps on occupancy, moving beyond the blueprint, aligning with the CDC on mask mandates — that all goes into effect at midnight," Newsom said on Monday.

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Although the Golden State is poised to allow Californians to shed masks in most situations, residents will still need to keep one handy for some situations, as coronavirus cases have diminished but infections still linger.

"We're not done. This is not spiking the football tomorrow (Tuesday)," Newsom said. "It's not mission accomplished tomorrow. This virus is not going away tomorrow. This pandemic is not behind us tomorrow. We're very mindful that already in 2021, globally, more people have lost their lives to COVID than the entire year 2020."

Here's what you need to know.

1. There are five situations in which vaccinated Californians will be required to wear a mask.

Fully vaccinated Californians, for the most part, will be able to go maskless in most settings — a crowded bar, the gym, grocery stores, you name it. But there are still some places that will enforce masks regardless of vaccination status, according to California's Department of Public Health.

1. On public transit such as while on airplanes, ships, ferries, trains, subways, buses, taxis, and ride-shares. Masks will also be required in transportation hubs such as an airport, bus terminal, marina, train station, seaport or subway station.

2. Indoors in K-12 schools, childcare and other youth settings. This may change as updated K-12 schools guidance is forthcoming, pending updates for K-12 operational guidance from the CDC.

3. Healthcare settings (including long term care facilities)

4. State and local correctional facilities and detention centers

5. Homeless shelters, emergency shelters and cooling centers

2. Masking requirements for California's indoor workers are still up in the air.

Under Cal/OSHA's rules, all workers will still be required to wear masks indoors until Thursday at least. On that day, the state's workplace regulators will vote on masking rules.

The proposed rules include a requirement for unvaccinated workers to continue wearing a mask indoors. Those who are vaccinated will be able to go maskless indoors.

"If they adopt the guidlines they published Friday, we'll codify that with an executive order to make that clear," Newsom said at a news breifing on Monday.

Ordinarily, Cal/OSHA's ruling wouldn't take effect until June 28, but Newsom said he would issue an executive order to bring workplace rules in concert with the state's guidelines.

Previously, Cal/OSHA had proposed more stringent rules that would have required employers to provide masks and track vaccination status of employees. On Monday, the governor he said vaccination status of works should be left to the honor system.

"You've got to believe people's veracity," he said. "People, we hope, will be honest about that."

3. Unvaccinated Californians are required to wear masks indoors.

Anyone who is unvaccinated will technically be required to wear a mask indoors but there won't be any kind of universal system to enforce this rule, Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state's health secretary, confirmed last week.

"We are not requiring businesses to, for example, have somebody at the door checking for vaccine status as a way to comply with this," Ghaly said.

According to the CDPH, masks are required for unvaccinated people in settings such as retail stores, restaurants, theaters, family entertainment centers, meetings and state and local offices.

4. Businesses and venues will be allowed to require masks.

Despite the state's low positivity rate — 0.8 percent — the coronavirus is still ciruclating, so the state will allow businesses to enforce tighter coronavirus restrictions for patrons.

Business and event-venue operators can choose how to enforce those rules. According to the state, they have three options:

• Businesses and venues can publicly post rules regarding mask- wearing and allow customers and visitors to "self-attest" that they are vaccinated, meaning if someone enters the business without a mask they are attesting to being vaccinated.
• They can "implement a vaccine-verification system to determine whether individuals are required to wear a mask.
• They can simply require all patrons to wear a mask.

Businesses are also not allowed to prevent anyone from wearing a mask or refuse service to anyone who chooses to wear a face covering.

Newsom also said Monday that the state is working to develop a vaccine verification system, which he clarified, would not be a requirement or any kind of "passport," but instead, simply a way to display a vaccination record digitally.

"It's just the ability now to have an electronic version of that paper version and so you'll hear more about that in the next couple of days," he said.

California's official June 15 guidance on masks can be found here.