The county is on the verge of moving to the CDC’s “high” level of community transmission. Staying two weeks at that level will automatically trigger an indoor masking mandate.
A return to mandate appears imminent as new Omicron subvariants fuel a summer boom.
But how do people feel about it?
Like many residents, Roman Lomtadze says he is unwilling to return to masking.
“I’m not really sure about that,” he said.
“I think they work. But telling people they should wear them? I think that’s where I started having problems with it,” Lomtadze said.
Health officials report that the highly transmissible omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 now account for 40% of sequenced cases.
“It’s two and a half times more than it was just two weeks ago,” said LA County public health director Barbara Ferrer. “Both BA4 and BA5 are of particular concern because of their ability to evade prior immunity.”
This means that people who were previously infected with other forms can get it again.
“This is real, and the county has signaled that we are moving towards indoor masking again,” said LA Mayor Eric Garcetti.
LA County reported 100 COVID-19 deaths in the past week – the most in three months.
Garcetti said, “This year more people have died from COVID than the flu, from homicides, from car accidents combined. I think we all want it to be done. We think That it has happened, but it is still quite dangerous.”
He said the goal of universal indoor masking is to reduce the spread. And if everyone participated, we wouldn’t have to do it for long.
“It’s for your safety, but it’s also for the safety of others,” said Orion Gaston, who hails from Texas.
“If everyone does it, then yes if it’s needed,” said tourist Mark Fregaard
“If that was the mandate and everyone was doing it, we would be happy to wear masks,” said Alison, Fregaard’s wife.
“You know it sucks,” said Clyde Hayes of Los Angeles.
“But we have to do what we got to do,” said Kayla Starr of Los Angeles.
“We have to do what we have to do to get back to normal,” Hayes said.
The White House COVID-19 response team is urging eligible Americans to get hold of their vaccines and boosters. On Wednesday, the FDA authorized the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine for people 18 years of age and older, making it the fourth vaccine to receive emergency use authorization.
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