Ventura County Government: Ventura County Public Health Extends Indoor Mask Order

Press release from the Ventura County Government:

17 September 2021

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Ventura, CA – Ventura County Public Health has extended the indoor mask order, requiring allindividuals, regardless of vaccination status, to wear face coverings when indoors in public settings, withlimited exceptions. The order will continue to be in effect until October 19, 2021 or until it is extended,rescinded, superseded, or amended by the Health Officer. “Our current case rate of 19.3 is stillconsidered widespread community transmission by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention andthe California Department of Public Health,” said Public Health Officer Doctor Robert Levin. “We needto see a continued decrease in the case rate and hospitalizations before safely lifting indoor maskingrequirements to help prevent future surges.”

The order directs that face coverings must be worn over the mouth and nose – regardless of vaccinationstatus – in all indoor public settings, venues, gatherings, and workplaces, including but not limited tooffices, retail stores, restaurants and bars, theaters, family entertainment centers, conference and eventcenters, and government offices serving the public.

Individuals, businesses, venue operators, hosts, and others responsible for the operation of indoor publicsettings must: • Require all patrons to wear face coverings for all indoor settings, regardless of their vaccination status; and • Post clearly visible and easy-to-read signage at all entry points for indoor settings to communicate the masking requirements to all patrons. Signage is provided by Ventura County Public Health at www.vcrecovers.org.

This health order aims to reduce community transmission of COVID-19. Health officials are concernedby the substantial levels of increased community transmission, especially among unvaccinated people.In part, this is due to the widespread COVID-19 Delta variant, which is substantially more transmissiblethan previous forms of the virus. Recent information from the Centers for Disease Control andPrevention also indicates that even fully vaccinated individuals can in some cases spread the Deltavariant to others, and so indoor use of face coverings provides an important added layer of protection.

More information about COVID-19 available at: www.venturacountyrecovers.org.

This press release was produced by the Ventura County Government. The views expressed here are the author’s own.