Los Angeles’ top health official indicated today that the county expects to lift its indoor mask mandate much more quickly than previously projected.
Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer indicated today that the region’s indoor mask mandate, which she projected last week would be lifted in late April, is now likely to be lifted on March 16. That is only a projection, but a hopeful one to be certain.
Ferrer announced that the timeline had been sped up because the most stringent requirement preventing the lifting of masking had been removed by an FDA ruling this week.
Last week, Ferrer had added a requirement that vaccines for children under 5 must have been available for 8 weeks before indoor masking requirements would be lifted in L.A. She said that approval should happen by the end of the month, putting the lifting of those outdoor mask mandates at the end of April.
The FDA has delayed that approval, however, so Ferrer said today that the county is “no longer using the availability of the vaccine [to kids under 5] as a metric.”
Given that, she shared a graphic that estimated the other requirements for lifting masking indoors would be met between March 16 and March 30. California is lifting a similar mandate tomorrow, but local rules are allowed to be more stringent.
The reduction in L.A. County’s mandated masking indoors at workplaces, retail and indoor events would come when the region 7 days at or below moderate transmission as defined by the CDC and “there are no emerging reports of significantly circulating new variants of concern that threaten vaccine effectiveness.”
The CDC bar for moderate transmission is when a region averages less than 50 cases per 100,000 over 7 days. As of today, according to state stats, the county’s 7-day average case rate was 46 per 100,000 residents, down from 117.3 cases per 100,000 residents just last week. Additionally, yesterday’s case rate was 49 per 100,000. That means the county could actually achieve 7 days below 50 cases per 100,000 by next Monday.
Given those numbers, it’s unclear why the County presentation indicated a mid-March easing, but Ferrer was later pressed by county supervisors, who asked why the mandate could not be lifted earlier.
The requirement county has set for dropping masking at large outdoor events and outdoor spaces at schools and child-care facilities is set to be dropped tomorrow, given that virus-related hospitalizations have stayed below 2,500 for seven straight days.
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