Cautious optimism over end of mask mandate in Sonoma County, California

Adrian Van Herwynen texted his wife a photo from the Sonoma County Family YMCA gym in Santa Rosa on Wednesday. In the selfie, Van Herwynen is raising his left arm in what looks like triumph. On his wrist is a green plastic band.

“Show your vax card, get a wristband, and no more mask at the Y,” he wrote.

His wife’s reply was a single word: “Yippee!”

That was all it took to summarize the feeling among a large number of county residents on the day they were allowed to show their long-obscured faces in a range of indoor establishments, as long as they could demonstrate, or plausibly claim, that they’re fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The sites included grocery stores, restaurants, bars, retails shops, theaters and offices.

And gyms like the YMCA, where staff were asking everyone to show vaccine cards or online confirmation in order to enter without a mask.

“It’s freedom,” Van Herwynen said somewhere along his 90-minute strength-and-cardio workout. “As much as I’ve said I’m willing to do (wear a mask indoors), this is wonderful. I’ve been waiting for it.”

Most of us have, after two years of on-again, off-again (but mostly on) public mask mandates that required facial coverings in Sonoma County indoor settings — including the past 6½ months.

Previous relaxations of the county health order have consistently been followed by ascending coronavirus transmission rates and harsher restrictions. Now, with hospitalizations stable, the explosive omicron variant on the wane and more than 80% of the county’s eligible residents fully vaccinated, some are allowing themselves to hope anew that N95 masks will cease to be a daily tool as integral as car keys and debit card.

It’s not an all-out reprieve from face coverings, however. Masks are still necessary in health care or senior care facilities, correctional facilities and detention centers, and homeless or emergency shelters. They’re also required on public transportation, and until Feb. 28 at least, children in public schools must wear them as well.

Still, Teja Gilmour sounded happy as she led the 1:30 p.m. Gentle Strength & Balance class at the YMCA on Wednesday afternoon.

“How are we doing?” she asked the warriors she was putting through a series of vigorous stretching poses. “I can see your faces now. You could stick your tongues out before. Now you can’t.”

But Gilmour was only 38.5% correct. Of the 13 class members, five chose to uncover their faces. Eight were masked up.

That ambivalence was on display elsewhere.

In an relatable but not necessarily logical twist, people in larger indoor settings — which, you could argue, are safer than intimate spaces — seemed more likely to cover up. Out of a couple-dozen people shopping at Grocery Outlet on Fourth Street, exactly one person was maskless.

Sara Tickel said it was much the same at Trader Joe’s, where they work.

“I just finished an eight-hour shift, and there were maybe three people without masks,” Tickel said while walking with friend Niki Bennett through the Santa Rosa Plaza.

Tickel did not wear one at work, they said. And yet they and Bennett both had their faces covered at the mall.

They were opting to wear masks, both said, because they were on their way to get their eyebrows threaded, an arrangement that felt was too close to risk trading germs.

“I do hair, so I’m really close to people’s faces all the time,” Bennett said. “I’m just used to it. And I enjoy the privacy of having my face hidden, to be honest.”

She offered one more reason. “A lot of my friends have gotten the virus lately, and they’ve all been double vaxxed and boosted,” Bennett said. “It feels a little too soon.”

She is not alone in that sentiment. Local transmission rates have indeed been falling. But the most recent rate of 46.8 new daily cases for every 100,000 residents (averaged over a seven-day period) is still higher than at any point between mid-January and mid-December of 2021.

Lisa Low, who has owned L Squared Salon for more than 30 years, said she was figuring it out on a case-by-case basis. As she trimmed Leslie Rea’s hair at the salon on Brookwood Ave., neither was masked. But earlier that day, Low said, another client who has a compromised immune system had chosen to cover her face. Low asked if the woman would like her to do it as well. The lady said no.

“I’m not here to make anybody uncomfortable,” Low said. “I wouldn’t stay in business very long if I did.”

The YMCA was also doing its best to accommodate its members. The bracelets are a way to allow everyone to quickly know which patrons are vaccinated. The workout center didn’t want to log medical information in its system, director Michelle Head said, so desk staff were simply typing “Access OK” in their files. With the weather nice, some exercise classes will remain outside.

For a couple of veteran gym goers, the Gentle Strength & Balance class was perfect inside. Michelle Boniello and Janyce Bodeson, both of Santa Rosa, were among those not wearing masks during the session.

“Oh, I could breathe,” Boniello said. “Some milder classes, you’re not really exerting yourself. But something like this, it really helps.”

Bodeson, who retired 10 years ago as an English and ESL teacher at Santa Rosa High School, said masking was hardest for her when working out upstairs on the weight machines. She called Wednesday “a big smile day.” She looked like an advertisement for that occasion. And as Bodeson left the mat room and walked through a YMCA hallway, she emitted a full-body giggle.

Head, the YMCA director, was feeling cautiously uplifted.

“It’s an exciting day,” she said. “It’s another step to the land of hope. But there’s definitely a nervous feeling of, will it be one step forward and two steps back?”

After two years of rattling along on the physical and emotional roller coaster of the pandemic, which has seen the YMCA closed to the public at times and short-staffed at others, Head has learned to hedge her bets. She and her colleagues changed all the signage at the gym Wednesday morning, alerting people that they could enter, naked-faced, and breathe deeply.

“But we didn’t throw away the old signage,” Head said.

You can reach Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @Skinny_Post.