Lifting of COVID-19 mask mandate has little impact

Canyon Lake is seeing little change in day-to-day life after the lifting of the statewide mask mandate Wednesday.

When the California Department of Public Health issued a statewide mandate to wear masks inside public buildings whether vaccinated or not on Dec. 15, both the City of Canyon Lake and the Canyon Lake POA stated they would not enforce the mandate.

And although the city and POA encouraged the wearing of masks and other safe COVID-19 practices, life without mask wearing has been the norm at local events, concerts, businesses, restaurants, etc in the city.

And the tack appears to have worked. Since the Dec. 15 mandate, there has not been a COVID-19 death in the city. The 24 COVID-19-related deaths reported by the county on that date has held steady. There has been a large increase in COVID-19 infections during that period of time (up 583 cases for a total of 1,990), but no deaths.

There are no vaccination statistics for the city, but the state reports that 82.6 percent of the population age 5 and over have received at least one dose. Riverside County reports that only 67.9 percent of the county’s eligible (5+) population has received at least one dose of the vaccine.

The county COVID-19 statistics show that being vaccinated was the most important aspect of preventing death. Of the more than 3,000 COVID-19 deaths last year in the county, only 135 of the deaths were of those who had been fully vaccinated.

The lifting of the mask mandate was only for those who have been vaccinated. Unvaccinated individuals continue to be instructed to wear masks inside public buildings. Also, schools K-12 are still masking.

The city in December said it would not enforce the mandate outside of public facilities (city hall, etc.) because policing of the state-mandated COVID-19 restrictions is up to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department with which the city contracts its police service. Throughout the pandemic, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco has been vocal regarding his opposition to enforcing any state-mandated COVID-19 restrictions.

The Canyon Lake POA said it didn’t act on the mask mandate because an executive order from the governor was never issued nor had the governor made a public statement or social media post about it. The “order” came instead from the California Department of Health.

During the holidays, there were reports of high rates of infection happening after Canyon Lake parties and other gatherings, but most of those infected were vaccinated and symptoms tended to be mild.