As Santa Clara County joins the rest of the Bay Area in beginning to reopen on Friday, face masks will become a bigger part of everyone’s daily lives. But the county’s largest city, San Jose, wants to go even further, requiring its residents to wear them most of the time they’re out in public — never mind that police won’t be looking to cite those who don’t.
Under the new county public health order, which takes effect Friday, residents must wear a face covering when at any business — even if it’s outdoors — and on public transit. Businesses, for their part, will have to post signs reminding residents to wear a face covering. At all other times when residents are out in public, they are “strongly encouraged” to wear a face covering, the order states.
The San Jose City Council has proposed an ordinance, which it likely will approve at its next meeting on June 2, that would go beyond the county order by requiring people to wear face coverings whenever they are in public places, including parks, or interacting with anyone outside their immediate household.
“It is clearly the best practice throughout the world in dealing with this crisis,” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said about masks during a council meeting Tuesday night. “And it’s far less obtrusive than a lot of other things that we might have to do if we end up getting a second spike in cases.”
The face mask mandates from both the county and city come nearly a month after similar orders went into effect across the rest of the Bay Area counties — San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa and Marin.
To spare police from having to enforce yet another law, Santa Clara County initially refrained from imposing an official order and instead issued a “strong recommendation” for its 1.9 million residents to cover their faces when out in public. San Jose leaders followed suit until now because the county is in charge of developing public health guidelines.
Police Chief Eddie Garcia has already indicated his officers will not be enforcing the city or the county order with a heavy hand because it would just serve as another example of agencies “serving a public health issue as a public safety issue.”
“I do fear that enforcement would impact our most vulnerable populations — the homeless, less affluent communities and others in which English is not their first language and they may not understand it,” Garcia said.
He urged the city against creating its own ordinance in addition to the county’s, noting that “when COVID-19 is gone, we’re going to be left to deal with the credibility of this police department on how we enforce these laws and regulations.”
Guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control recommend wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus and to help stop people who don’t know they have the virus from transmitting it to others.
Starting Friday, here is where you are required to wear a face covering in Santa Clara County:
- Nonessential businesses reopening for curbside pickup, including bookstores, clothing stores, florists and sporting goods stores
- Outdoor businesses, such as nurseries
- Grocery stores and other essential businesses
- Public transit
Here are the exemptions:
- Children under the age of six
- People who have trouble breathing
- People who are unable to remove a face covering without assistance
Here’s when you can go mask-free:
- In the comfort of your own home or car
- During exercise — walking, biking, hiking or running
How San Jose would go further:
San Jose’s proposed ordinance would mandate that residents wear a face mask — or at least have them with them — in most instances when they leave the house.
The proposal, submitted by vice mayor Chappies Jones and council member Sergio Jimenez, states that a face covering would be required when:
- Interacting in-person with any member of the public or coworkers outside of members of your immediate household
- Working in any space visited by members of the public, including reception areas, service counters, public restrooms or commons areas
- In any room or enclosed area when other people — except for members of the person’s own household — are present, including coworkers
Residents would not be required to wear a mask when exercising. But, if they were to walk in a park where dozens of residents are also enjoying the same space, they would be asked to put them on.
The city would institute the same exemptions for children under the age of six, those unable to breathe while wearing a mask and those unable to put one on themselves.
Some residents questioned why the city would move forward with an ordinance that they knew their police officers would not be enforcing.
“Why are we creating a mandate that we don’t expect a lot of people to follow?” resident Brandon Alvarado asked the council during Tuesday night’s meeting. “Even the chief of police isn’t interested in the enforcement of this.”
But Liccardo compared the new regulation to the city’s fireworks ban, saying they both serve the purpose of encouraging “social enforcement.”
“The reason we’d have something like this knowing that we’re not going to be out there arresting people or issuing fines at every violation is that it is important to establish norms of behavior and laws do serve that purpose,” he said.