Order by health officials in nation’s most populous county comes amid an uptick in COVID-19 cases.
Los Angeles County over the weekend confirmed that has reinstated a mask-wearing mandate for staff, patients, and visitors at licensed health care facilities, citing a recent increase in COVID-19 cases.
According to health officials, the county entered the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) “medium level” for hospital admissions on Dec. 29, triggering the masking mandate.
“Over the past week in Los Angeles County, there have been notable, yet not unexpected, increases in COVID-19 reported cases, hospitalizations, and deaths,” the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said in a statement about the change.
“While recent increases are significant, they remain considerably below last winter’s peak and common-sense protections are strongly recommended to help curb transmission and severe illness as the new year begins.”
The mandate stipulates that the requirement will be rescinded once Los Angeles County, which has the highest population of any county in the United States, re-enters the CDC’s threshold for “low level” COVID-19 transmission and hospitalizations.
The threshold for the CDC’s “medium” level is 10 to 19.9 new COVID-19-related hospital admissions per 100,000 people over one week. The order said that over the past week or so, 10.5 new COVID-19-connected hospitalizations were recorded across Los Angeles County.
“In addition, all persons visiting a licensed health care facility that provides inpatient care are required to mask when around patients and while in patient-care areas. This will remain in effect until the COVID-19 hospital admission level in Los Angeles County is below the CDC’s Medium Level for at least 14 consecutive days,” the order added.
Far More Previously
Historical data posted by the CDC show that the recent uptick in COVID-19 cases is still a far cry from the number of cases in 2020, 2021, and early 2022.
The data show that for the week ending Dec. 23, 2023, there were about 29,000 hospitalizations across the United States, while for the week ending a year before that, on Dec. 24, there were some 39,000 hospitalizations.
About three months ago, Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer told the Los Angeles Times that she wasn’t looking to reinstate a mask mandate.
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