Los Angeles County will retain its indoor mask mandate past the February 15 date set Monday by Gov. Gavin Newsom as the date to end a statewide mandate, according to public health officials in the county.
As NBC Los Angeles reported:
State officials announced Monday the indoor mask wearing requirement for vaccinated people will expire at the end of the day Feb. 15. Gov. Gavin Newsom said the move is the result of a 65% drop in the infection rate since the peak of the winter surge caused by the Omicron variant of COVID-19, as well as a stabilization in hospitalization numbers.
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In Los Angeles County, mask requirements will remain in effect for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people in indoor settings, as well as at large outdoor mega-events, such as Sunday’s Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium.
Last week, county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer unveiled metrics for a possible relaxing of the county’s masking orders, saying the mandate will be dropped at outdoor “mega-events” and outdoors at schools and child-care centers if COVID-positive hospitalizations in the county fall below 2,500 for seven consecutive days.
As of Monday, there were 2,773 COVID-positive patients in county hospitals.
Newsom and L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti both violated the L.A. County mask mandate when they took off their masks at the NFC Championship game at SoFi Stadium last month, ostensibly to pose for photographs.
The state will still require unvaccinated people to wear masks indoors after Feb. 15, at the risk of stigmatizing all those who wish to wear masks as a precaution.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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