LOS ANGELES (CNS) — Hours after Los Angeles County’s modifications to the indoor mask mandate went into effect, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention amended its guidelines — altogether dropping its recommendation for continued indoor masking across much of the U.S., except L.A. County.
The CDC's new guidelines shifted the agency's emphasis away from COVID infection rates to focus instead on hospitalization numbers. The move was made with the knowledge that, with more people vaccinated, many people who get infected with the virus won't require hospitalization, reducing the likelihood of overrun hospitals.
Despite the changes, L.A. County is still categorized as a community with a COVID level that is “high.” That means that the CDC will continue to recommend indoor mask wearing in the county.
It was not immediately clear when the county might fall to the “medium'' category, which would drop the mask-wearing recommendation for most indoor locations. Ferrer said that would require the county to have a seven-day cumulative infection rate of less than 50 per 100,000 residents — which is expected to happen by March 16.
It was also not immediately clear if the county will immediately follow the new CDC guidelines or stick to its previous metrics for determining when to lift the remainder of the indoor mask-wearing mandate.
County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer told reporters Thursday that health officials would review the new CDC measures and would likely present some options to the Board of Supervisors next week.
In the meantime, the indoor mask-wearing mandate will remain in place for most locations in the county. But under the relaxed rules that took effect Friday, vaccinated people will be able to shed masks at indoor businesses that verify the vaccine status of all patrons.
The rule puts the burden on individual businesses to verify that all customers permitted indoors are either fully vaccinated or can provide proof of a recent negative COVID test.
Even after that verification is conducted, only fully vaccinated customers are permitted to remove masks indoors. Unvaccinated customers must continue wearing masks indoors, even after showing proof of a negative COVID test, unless they are actively eating or drinking.
The same basic rules will apply to workers at indoor establishments.
“This allows, in places where you're verifying that people are either fully vaccinated or they have that negative test result, that then it's a safer environment where those who are fully vaccinated can go ahead and (remove) their masks,” Ferrer said Thursday.
“While those who are not, even if they've had a negative test result, (must) keep their masks on. That's to stay aligned with the state order.”
According to Ferrer, reaching the CDC's “moderate'' level of transmission requires the county to have a seven-day cumulative infection rate of less than 50 per 100,000 residents. Ferrer said that is expected to happen by March 16, meaning the indoor mask mandate would be completely lifted by March 30.
Under federal rules, masks continue to be required indoors at airports, transit centers, aboard public transit, in health-care facilities and at homeless shelters, long-term care centers and emergency shelters.
Long Beach and Pasadena:
Long Beach and Pasadena, which both have their own health departments separate from the county, will ease their indoor masking requirements on Saturday, generally align with the state.
In those cities, masks will still be required indoors for unvaccinated people. However, businesses can allow patrons to simply self-attest to their vaccination status, without any formal
verification process.
Businesses will also have the option of verifying everyone's vaccination status, or to simply require all patrons to wear masks.
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