LA County to Reinstitute Mask Mandate Saturday, Announces Dept of Public Health

7/15 (AP) Los Angeles County reinstated a mandate requiring residents to wear masks while indoors, regardless of vaccination status. This as LA county experienced an alarming increase in COVID-19 transmission.

County health department chief Barbara Ferrer announced the new mandate on Thursday afternoon at 2:30 pm PST.  LA county previously only recommended mask-wearing indoors. The new mandate will take effect at 11:59 p.m. Saturday.

Many speculated that the indoor mask mandate presaged the schools not opening in September, as planned. And that further lockdowns would be instituted.

Los Angeles County on Thursday reported another 1,537 COVID-19 cases and three additional deaths. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 in Los Angeles County topped 400 Wednesday, while another 1,315 infections were confirmed.

Thursday marks the seventh consecutive day of new cases over 1,000. However, hospitalizations were 40 times that number (i.e., 16,000) at the height of the Pandemic in January 2021.

The increases continue slow but steady month-long climbs that have prompted concern among health care officials and led to another call from Gov. Gavin Newsom for people to get vaccinated. 

"I cannot impress upon you more the power of getting vaccinated," Newsom said during an appearance Wednesday in Bell Gardens.

"If we want to extinguish this pandemic, this disease, we've got to get vaccinated. Period. Full stop. You're seeing again around the rest of the world -- read the headlines in Indonesia right now. Read the headlines in Portugal right now. Read the headlines in the United States of America right now."