The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced it is once again requiring people to wear masks indoors. The department cited an “increase in transmission” as the reason for the renewed mandate, which is set to begin on Saturday, July 17th at 11:59 pm. It will be required for everyone in the county, regardless of vaccination status.
The announcement comes exactly one month after California ended its statewide mask mandate and reopened. Health officials said exemptions would be announced before the mandate begins and that the new health order would be posted in full to the Los Angeles County covid-19 website. LA County health official Dr. Muntu Davis stated that “the county is not where it needs to be” concerning the region’s vaccination rate. Davis also said the county had seen seven consecutive days of more than 1,000 new cases, the highest since March of this year. When asked about the possibility of more restrictions, Davis said, “everything is on the table.”
Dr. Sam Torbati, director of the emergency department of Cedars-Sinai, told ABC 7 that he worries the spike in cases could get worse, stating “all of a sudden, in the past couple weeks, we have seen a seven-fold increase in the number of people coming to the emergency room with covid-related issues.” He went on to say, “right now, we’re seeing more young people infected because they’re more active and proportionally less-vaccinated. They’re not wearing face masks, they’re not protected so they’re going to get infected.” Dr. Torbati also said “the vast majority of the hospitalized patients are unvaccinated” and believes that this small spike in cases could lead to a larger one. He urged people to get vaccinated, “you keep at it and you keep at it. Eventually it sinks in” the doctor said.
NEW: 70% of CA’s adult population has received at least one #COVID19 vaccine.
The #CAComeback is here.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) May 31, 2021
In late May of this year, it was reported that 70% of Californians had received at least one vaccine dose, prompting Governor Gavin Newsom to tweet, “NEW: 70% of CA’s adult population has received at least one #COVID19 vaccine. The #CAComeback is here.” Since March of 2020, California has imposed some of the strictest lockdown rules in the country but continues to experience “covid spikes” this may be at least one of the reasons why the governor is facing a recall election this fall. The continued urgent calls for people to get vaccinated and the outlandish incentives may prove less than effective if masks are still required even if you are vaccinated.
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