LA County can relax mask rules in several places, officials say

Vaccinated residents of Los Angeles County may soon become maskless in an indoor environment and be able to see evidence of doses, county officials said Tuesday.

The details of the next shift are still inadequate, but such changes are potentially significant rules in areas where even if the Omicron wave recedes, it is more reluctant to relax such requirements. Will be mitigation.

In a statement to the Times, the County Public Health Service is considering possible options for early removal of indoor masking protection at sites with other additional layers of protection, such as vaccination verification. The new health order will be issued and will come into effect on Friday. According to the department, additional details will be provided on Wednesday.

In the post On twitter “Vaccinated people will be able to take off their masks indoors where they can see evidence of vaccination,” said supervisor Janice Hahn on Tuesday afternoon. rice field.

“This allows us to be much closer to being in line with the state,” she writes.

Supervisor Kathryn Berger also made fun of the next update On twitter“This is another step to live [with] COVID-19 in a balanced way. “

But “fragmented policies are frustrating and confusing,” Berger added. Berger, like Hahn, wants the county masking rules to be in perfect agreement with the state rules.

This potential development does not come from the left fielder. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said last week that changes were underway in line with these policies.

It is not yet known how vast this new order is. LA county Proof required Percentage of COVID-19 vaccination in a relatively small number of companies such as indoor bars, wineries, breweries, distilleries, nightclubs and lounges.

But the city of Los Angeles There are much broader rules Books covering various indoor retailers and venues such as restaurants, movie theaters, hair salons, nail salons, coffee shops, gyms, museums, bowling alleys, performance venues, etc. are posted.

It is also unclear whether companies can make their own decision to perform vaccine validation if it is not needed as a trade-off to enable customers to be maskless.

At this point, LA County is one of the few jurisdictions in California, and you need to wear a mask indoors in public, regardless of whether you are vaccinated with COVID-19.

Universal indoor masking was required for about two months across the state From mid-December, As health officials tried to slow the spread of the highly infectious Omicron variant of coronavirus.However, state officials said the number of both newly reported infections and hospitalized coronavirus-positive patients was steadily declining. Canceled that mission last week.

However, the community health department has the option of maintaining stricter rules if it believes it is justified. Much of California is in line with the state’s approach, but some regions include: Palm spring When St. Claire When Mendocino County — Like LA, we have decided to keep the local mask rules for now.

LA County must reach a “moderate infection” to completely lift the obligation to use indoor masks As defined by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Getting there means recording less than 730 new coronavirus cases per week. This is the last level achieved between mid-March and mid-July.

The county is well above that threshold at this point, but Feller says he believes the region is in a position to relax the rules from mid-March to late March.

LA’s approach has been criticized by some residents and elected officials. “The longer we have to pull off the indoor mask mission, the more we are out of the state and we lose to the public,” Hahn said last week.

However, not everyone has the same idea. Supervisor Holly Mitchell called masking “a very common, low-cost, minimally invasive, global public health practice.”

“You have to enjoy when the transmission is low, and you can remove the mask when the transmission is low,” she said last week.

Despite recent changes at the state level, unvaccinated residents in public places indoors and everyone in certain environments, such as nursing homes, still need a face cover. K-12 school indoorsAnd public transportation.