LA County Could Bring Back Indoor Mask Mandate: ‘It Helps Reduce Risk’

Los Angeles County could bring back its indoor mask mandate, well over two years after the start of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, public health officials hinted this week.

According to reports, LA County could soon enter what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) categorizes as a “high” risk level. As of Thursday morning, the LA County remained in the “medium” level.

“Given the continued increase, we do anticipate by this Thursday the county will move into that high level,” Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer told the Board of Supervisors earlier this week.

If the county does, in fact, enter a “high” level for two weeks, a mask mandate will go into place yet again just days after World Health Organization (W.H.O.) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus demanded the same response, as Breitbart News reported.

“I do recognize that when we return to universal indoor masking to reduce high spread, for many this will feel like a step backwards,” Ferrer said. However, she seemingly dismissed potential concerns, asserting that masking “makes a lot of sense because it helps us to reduce risk.”

“People are just not wearing them when they’re not mandated,” Supervisor Sheila Kuehl stated, according to ABC7.

According to the county’s data, the county reported 6,530 new cases on July 13, and the 7-day average positivity rate stands at 14.86 percent. 

While public health officials are beginning to urge Americans to mask to yet again, data does not seem to support the mass calls for masking. 

California’s Alameda County stood as one of the only counties in the area that reimposed mask mandate throughout much of June. However, the mandate did little to nothing to reduce the spread of the virus, as nearby Bay Area counties with no mask mandate experienced “near-identical” case curves, as Breitbart News detailed.