Los Angeles County to restore indoor mask mandate for all

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles County’s public health officer says a rapid and sustained increase in COVID-19 cases in the nation’s largest county requires a return to mandatory mask-wearing indoors even when people are vaccinated.

Dr. Muntu Davis told a virtual press conference Thursday that a public health order requiring masks indoors will go into effect on Saturday.

He didn’t detail what he said would be some exceptions.

Davis says the county has been recording more than 1,000 new cases each day for a week and that there is now “substantial community transmission.”

According to the Associated Press, 59 people at a homeless shelter in Northern California, half are vaccinated, tested positive for COVID-19.

The AP reported that out of those 59 people, nine were hospitalized.

According to the AP, they received the Johnson & Johnson vaccination, but officials don’t know if it was a factor in the outbreak, which officials say was caused by the delta variant.