Marin County has benefited from high vaccination rates.

If Marin County remains in the “moderate” transmission category for more than three weeks, it will almost certainly meet the criteria set by Bay Area health officials last week to lift the indoor mask mandate in public settings for vaccinated people.

Seven of the nine other Bay Area counties remain in the “substantial” transmission category, labeled orange on the map.

In terms of potentially lifting the countywide indoor mask mandate, the guidance from Bay Area counties — including Marin — specifies that the mask rules can be pulled back once counties reach three benchmarks: showing that the virus is not widely circulating; that hospitals aren’t overfull with COVID patients; and that vaccination rates are high.

Only Marin County has hit a key 80% vaccination benchmark.

Other Bay Area counties, where vaccination rates vary from about 66% to 75%, do not expect to hit that goal for several months.

“For those that are concerned that we may not be prepared yet to lift that additional local restriction, it’s important to recognize that Marin County, by virtue of having some of the highest vaccination rates, is a highly protected county.