Los Angeles County health officials are now strongly recommending people wear masks indoors in public places. Regardless of whether or not someone has received the COVID-19 vaccine, officials say it is to prevent the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant. The announcement came just two weeks after California Governor Gavin Newsom lifted the statewide mask mandate.
“The L.A. County recommendation – which is not a mandate – in the nation’s most populous county does not match what the state government and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say, which is that vaccinated people in certain public indoor settings do not need to be masked. Unvaccinated people are supposed to wear masks in public” reported Los Angeles KTLA 5.
Los Angeles is not alone. The World Health Organization (WHO) is also urging vaccinated people to wear masks worldwide because of the delta variant spike first identified in India. Reportedly, more than 95% of COVID-19 cases in the U.K. are of the delta variant, and Hong Kong will ban all passenger flights from the U.K. beginning Thursday.
The L.A. County public health department suggested that people wear masks when inside grocery or retail stores, as well as theaters and family entertainment centers and workplaces when people’s vaccination statuses are not known.
“Until we better understand how and to who the Delta variant is spreading, everyone should focus on maximum protection with minimum interruption to routine as all businesses operate without other restrictions, like physical distancing and capacity limits,” the department said in a news release.
The county experienced a massive surge in cases and deaths over the winter. To date, the county has recorded a total of 1.2 million cases and more than 24,000 deaths.
