Los Angeles County said Thursday that residents would be required to wear masks indoors once more, regardless of vaccination status, amid the spread of the highly contagious delta variant of COVID-19.
The new ordinance will go into effect late Saturday night and comes just a month after California dropped most restrictions for vaccinated people and restarted its economy.
“We’re not where we need to be for the millions at risk of infection here in Los Angeles County, and waiting to do something will be too late given what we’re seeing now,” Dr. Muntu Davis, the county’s health officer, said during a news briefing. “This is an all-hands-on-deck moment.”
Previously, those fully vaccinated were allowed to remove their masks across California, but health officials said the new measures would help stanch the spread of the delta strain. The orders will be in place for the foreseeable future, although Davis stressed that more restrictions could be put in place should case numbers skyrocket.
“Wearing a mask indoors with others reduces the risk of both getting & transmitting the virus,” Los Angeles Public Health wrote on Twitter. “We’re requiring masking for everyone indoors at public settings & businesses, regardless of vaccination status, so that we can stop the increased transmission level we’re seeing.”
In late June, public health officials in Los Angeles urged residents to wear masks again in public spaces, citing the spread of the delta strain, which has since become the dominant variant of COVID-19 in the United States. Los Angeles County is averaging more than 1,000 new cases daily, a sharp increase from the average of 173 points per day when the state
was still under virus restrictions in mid-June. However, the Los Angeles Times notes that cases and hospitalizations are more than 93% lower than at the height of the pandemic, and deaths are at low levels. Health officials have stressed that vaccines remain the best method to combat serious illness and death even amid the surge in cases linked to the delta variant. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, has continued to urge Americans to get vaccinated, and figures show that almost all of the nation’s COVID-19 deaths are among people who remain unvaccinated.
