Temporary Requirement to Use Face Coverings

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Source: Santa Barbara County Public Health Department

The County Health Officer Dr. Henning Ansorg, M.D. has issued Health Officer Order No. 2020-10. This Order will be effective starting 5:00 p.m. (PDT) May 26, 2020, continuing until 5:00 p.m. (PDT), on June 30, 2020, or until it is extended, rescinded, superseded, or amended in writing by the County of Santa Barbara Health Officer (“Health Officer”).

A significant portion of individuals with COVID-19 are asymptomatic and can transmit the virus to others through coughing, sneezing, or talking. Face coverings have the potential to slow the spread of the virus by limiting the spread of respiratory droplets.

The intent of this Order is to temporarily require the use of Face Coverings to slow the spread of COVID-19 to the maximum extent possible.

The new order stipulates the following:

  1. This Order does not apply to infants or children under the age of 13.
  2. Masks with one-way valves cannot be used to comply with this Order. These types of masks permit respiratory droplets to easily escape which places others at risk.
  3. All individuals, unless an exception applies, must wear a face covering:
  • When inside of or in line to enter any and all businesses.
  • When using public transportation, a private car service, or a ride-sharing vehicle. Drivers must wear a face covering while driving or operating vehicles regardless of whether a member of the public is in the vehicle.
  • All businesses must require employees, contractors, owners, and volunteers to wear a face-covering at the workplace and at off-site work locations.

Exceptions, guidelines, and information relative to this order can be found in the full Health officer Order located here.

Edhat Staff

Written by Edhat Staff

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36 Comments

  1. From 5pm Friday May 22 until 4:59pm Tuesday May 26 it was determined that the virus will not be waiting in line to enter businesses and will not be inside businesses except as noted. A spokesperson for the virus stated that they will wait until after the holiday weekend to begin the next wave and continue until 5pm June 30 but that may be extended, rescinded, superseded, or amended as it sees fit.

  2. Ginger1 and Ternst – exactly. The next three days are fine. We’ve scheduled virus acceleration for next week. And Ternst – it’s ‘herd’ immunity, but you probably already knew that.

  3. Couldn’t agree more with this…all of this governmental ordeing is such crap…Okay, so we can have a bbq with 10 or less people and covid 19 will just wait in the wings untill 1 more person shows up, then it will strike? Seriously folks, put on your own thinking caps and consider the huge amounts of ILLogic going around more than and actual virus these days.

  4. So, if kids arnt required(because we all know any kid isn’t going to stand for wearing a mask, let alone the health effects from them) why should we apply this “order” to those over that age? Does that even make sense? Does any of this make sense? NO! Here we go agenda 21…don’t believe me, go get the agenda 21 book published by the UN…

  5. No, 12:33 – I was being sarcastic. Look at the stats – those three cities have some of the highest death and infection rates and slowest declines in those two categories despite their lockdowns and masks. Nothing has yet proven to “have helped enormously.” Yet it has been proven, and continues to be proven, that states and cities that minimized their restrictions have had the lowest, most stable, and/or problems: Texas, Georgia, Florida…..

  6. Kruppe, you mean the UK with one-fifth the population of the U.S. and a death rate of 541 per one million inhabitants compared to us with a death rate of 298 per one million is doing better because of the masks? Yeah, right.

  7. Interesting that the CDC is being asked to investigate why Los Angeles, with it’s forced use of masks, social distancing, and continued lockdowns and restrictions, remains one of the nation’s three “hotspots” with continued infection and death rates. Ditch the masks, get fresh air and exercise, socialize, quit living like a hermit in fear of what horrible dangers might be out there trying to get you….and then you might actually become a normal human being again. Maybe the people coming up here from Los Angeles want to get away from that rat trap of confinement that’s doing no good for them.

  8. If you like masks, make a reservation to visit the SBBotanic Garden where masks are required all the time, even if you’re alone, and where cars can’t be parked next to each other, apparently, cars are contagious, and where many of the attractive, non-paved trails and benches are roped or taped off, as are all access spots to the creek which used to be a pleasant respite from urbanity. You have to be a member of the garden to experience this extreme mask wearing — we’re not likely to renew our membership next month when it expires.

  9. @ 08:19: Yes, stay inside and safe Sheeple. Your chances of dying from the virus will be only .0002 out of a million people. Your chances of dying if you go outside will be .0002. Better not drive, though, because that will raise your odds to .009.

  10. So, Masks with one-way exhaust valves are not allowed, but a bandana is? Or the hairnet a guy in the store was wearing as a mask yersterday? I absolutely hate wearing one, but I do for everyone elses comfort level, like a lot of people, do I think.

  11. Take a look at the rt.live website.
    These are up-to-date values for Rt, a key measure of how fast the virus is growing. It’s the average number of people who become infected by an infectious person. If Rt is above 1.0, the virus will spread quickly. When Rt is below 1.0, the virus will stop spreading.

  12. For those face mask deniers, please study the results of Hong Kong. This densely packed city has recorded only 4 COVID 19 deaths! Why so few? The people of Hong Kong were wise enough to mitigate the spread by wearing masks very early during the pandemic.
    It could be argued that the real sheeple are those who follow the president and Fox News!

  13. Yeah, Buckwheat, RIGHT! Sure, 4 deaths in Hong Kong because of the masks they wear. Any reason they continue to riot there, fight authoritarian rule, and are being subjected to intense police abuse? And you believe what the CCP is telling you from the media they control coming out of Hong Kong? No deaths out of China for many weeks? Kind of like when this first started and China and the WHO said this wasn’t contagious, transmittable from person to person, and didn’t come from the Wuhan lab and was actually made by the United States. Sorry, people who listen to alternate media are not the “real sheeple” as you think could be argued.

  14. The people complaining about masks and lockdowns are their own worst enemy, and ours. Masks are not a guarantee however, they are a mitigation factor to help reduce spread person to person which is the main transmission route for this virus. The sooner we can significantly knock it down by stopping that spread, the sooner we can return to a more normal existence. So please comply. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And there is no cure for this strange virus that affects everyone differently.

  15. I am not in the habit of sneezing, coughing, and spitting at people or in their faces. Regardless of what you think about containment of “droplets” or slowing down the spread of any virus or microbe, communicable diseases are not going away, and it has been proven that not only will masks, bandanas, and scarfs slow herd immunity, they may pose more serious risks to an individual that what they hope to accomplish. And perhaps Ansorg can explain “unless an exception applies” what those exceptions might be? Personally, I don’t want to re-breath my lung exhalation which is already laden with bacteria. From the National Health Library, “Mucus prevents attachment of bacteria to the epithelium, and those bacteria that cannot cross the mucus are cleared by exhalation or by the mucus-ciliary escalator. Bacterial pathogens colonize respiratory tissue and, as a consequence, compromise lung function.” And from another medical report in Medical Health Reports, “that most of the bacteria in the lungs of healthy people got there by way of microaspiration. In other words, they ride in on tiny droplets of saliva that made it from the microbe-filled mouth to the lungs. That means they avoided the movable tissue barrier, called the epiglottis, which keeps most saliva from getting into the lower respiratory tract.”

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