Los Angeles to lift outdoor mask mandate as Covid cases continue to fall
New rules will go into place at 12.01am on Wednesday say health officials
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
Los Angeles is set to lift its outdoor mask mandate as Covid hospitalisations in Southern California continue to fall, health officials have announced.
The new guidance will come into effect across Los Angeles County just after midnight on Wednesday and will allow people to go without masks at K-12 schools and child-care facilities.
Spectators will also be able to ditch masks when they go to “mega” events at city venues such as Dodger Stadium, SoFi Stadium, the Hollywood Bowl, and Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Mask rules at all of these settings will be lifted at 12.01am on Wednesday, LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer announced on Tuesday.
“With significant improvement in community transmission rates, we’re looking forward to realigning our safety measures while continuing as always to ensure protections for our workers and our most vulnerable residents,” she told the LA County Board of Supervisors.
And she added: “We remain very encouraged by the steady declines that are seen across so many of our metrics.”
Health officials had said they would drop the outdoor mask mandate when Covid hospitalisations fell below 2,500 for seven days in a row, which happened last Wednesday.
Data showed that as of Monday, there were 1,995 Covid patients hospitalised in LA County, down 26 per cent over the last week.
And over the last few weeks, LA County has seen an 81 per cent drop in new daily Covid cases.
Although the outdoor mandate will change, people in LA County will continue to have to wear masks in indoor spaces, regardless of vaccination status.
On Wednesday the state of California will lift its requirement for anyone over the age of two to wear a mask in most indoor space, but LA County will keep it in place until they record seven days of “moderate” Covid transmission.
Officials say that this could keep the indoor mandate in place until the middle of March.
California has seen more than 8.85m Covid cases during the pandemic, and 83,120 deaths.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments