Los Angeles Official Indicates County Will Not Likely Remove Indoor Mask Mandate Until Late April – Update

deadline.com:

UPDATED on Tuesday: Los Angeles Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer today explained to the County Board of Supervisors the decision today to maintain a mask mandate even though California announced it is relaxing its requirement.“We share in the desire to take masks off,” said Ferrer. “The issue is one of timing.

Because mask wearing is an effective strategy for reducing the spread of Covid-19, we are glad that we are able to use that protection to so the things we love.”She compared case numbers on December 15, when the state instituted its mask mandate, to those on this week saying, “Our case counts today are more than 4 times higher than they were on December 15.”She clarified the requirement county has set for dropping masking at large outdoor events and outdoor spaces at schools and child-care facilities: The post-surge trigger for easing those restrictions will be when virus-related hospitalizations fall below 2,500 for seven straight days.

They were at 2,773 yesterday.The next reduction in L.A. County’s mandated masking — this time at indoors at workplaces, retail and indoor events — would come when the region has two consecutive weeks at or below moderate transmission as defined by the CDC and “there are no emerging reports of significantly circulating new variants of concern that threaten vaccine effectiveness.” The CDC bar for moderate transmission is when a region averages less than 50 cases per 100,000 over 7 days.

As of today, according to state stats, the county’s 7-day average case rate was 117.3 per 100,000 residents, down from 193 cases per 100,000 residents for the week ending January 31.