New Face Mask Guidance Anticipated In Riverside County

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — New federal guidance on face masks amid COVID-19 was released Tuesday, and the state is following suit.

Riverside County Public Health Officer Dr. Geoffrey Leung told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday morning that the new guidance was expected from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the state would also issue its own guidance.

"We do all expect a gradual loosening of these restrictions as we go forward," Leung said early Tuesday.

The new guidance was released shortly after Leung spoke.

As expected, the new federal guidelines focus on people who have been fully vaccinated. For example, fully vaccinated people can mingle indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing, and fully vaccinated people can go maskless indoors with certain unvaccinated low-risk groups, according to the new guidance. Additionally, the updated guidance states fully vaccinated people do not need to wear a mask outdoors except in crowded settings and venues.

On Sunday, White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said new mask guidance was forthcoming.

“What I believe you’re going to be hearing, what the country is going to be hearing soon, is updated guidelines from the CDC,” Fauci told ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.”

Other federal health restrictions were lifted Tuesday. Per the new guidelines, fully vaccinated people can:

• Resume domestic travel and refrain from testing before or after travel or self-quarantine after travel.
• Refrain from testing before leaving the United States for international travel (unless required by the destination) and refrain from self-quarantine after arriving back in the United States.
• Refrain from testing following a known exposure, if asymptomatic, with some exceptions for specific settings
• Refrain from quarantine following a known exposure if asymptomatic
• Refrain from routine screening testing if asymptomatic and feasible

The news follows encouraging COVID-19 statistics being reported in the county and statewide. Leung said California has one of the lowest COVID-19 case rates in the nation. According to CDC data updated April 23, the state lags only behind Hawaii in its COVID-19 case rate, and California has the lowest positivity rate of any state in the nation.

On Tuesday, the California Department of Public Health updated the state's COVID-19 stats that show a case rate of 4.7 new cases per 100,000 residents and a 1.5 percent positivity rate.

Riverside County's case rate is faring slightly better than the state at 3.9 new cases per 100,000 residents — a slight improvement over last week's figures. The county's positivity rate was reported at 2.1 percent on Tuesday.

State figures are updated each Tuesday.

Public Health Director Kim Saruwatari told the board the county is "trending in the right direction."

In Riverside County, 29 percent of all vaccine-eligible residents are now fully vaccinated; 45 percent of this population are partially or fully vaccinated, Saruwatari reported. In people 65 and older, 58.5 percent are fully vaccinated; 71.7 percent of this population are partially or fully vaccinated, she said.

Related: J&J Vaccination Resumes In Riverside County

The portal to make an appointment for a vaccine at county-run and other sites can be accessed via www.rivcoph.org/COVID-19-Vaccine. Anyone who needs assistance may also call the county's 211 helpline.

The Riverside University Health System reported that 78 people countywide are hospitalized with COVID, two more than Monday, and that includes 21 intensive care unit patients diagnosed with the virus, four more than a day ago.

The total number of COVID cases recorded since the public health documentation period began in March 2020 is 298,259, up 258 from Monday, according to RUHS data.

The RUHS logged four additional virus-related fatalities, bringing the coronavirus death toll in the region to 4,563.