Public health officials in Los Angeles County cited declining COVID-19 hospitalizations when they refrained Thursday from reinstating an indoor mask mandate that was set to go back into effect Friday. At a meeting that was streamed live, public health director Barbara Ferrer addressed reporters about the decision, which she said was made solely based on the downward trend in serious illness for those infected with COVID-19.
“As I noted last week, any indication that the county would soon be moving to the ‘medium’ community level would be a good reason to not move forward with universal indoor masking, which is what we are doing today,” Ferrer said, adding, “We will be pausing and not moving forward at this time.”
The “medium” transmission designation refers to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s three-tier categorization for the spread of COVID-19. Since Los Angeles County follows the CDC guidelines, a “high” rating would have triggered the return of the indoor masking mandate.