- Los Angeles County will restore all indoor masks regulations starting Saturday.
- The announcement comes as the county is facing a worrying rise in the recent Covid-19 cases.
- A public health official said on Thursday that he expects the order to remain in effect until the situation improves.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
With the disturbing increase in Covid-19 cases, the largest county in the United States will restore mandatory requirements for indoor masks, regardless of vaccination status.
The Los Angeles County Public Health Officer, Dr. Muntu Davis, announced the news at a virtual press conference on Thursday. Davis said the new order will take effect at 11:59 on Saturday night.
“This is a moment of full participation,” he said.
Although there will be some exceptions, including allowing people to take off their masks when eating out, the measure will restore the precautions that the county had before it officially reopened a month ago.
The announcement comes as Los Angeles County is facing a recent rapid increase in Covid-19 cases. According to reports, the county reported more than 1,000 new cases every day in the past week. Los Angeles Times, An increase of more than 250% from two weeks ago.
Davis said that there were 1,537 new cases on Thursday, noting that the county’s most recent numbers signified “substantial community transmission.”
Officials are also concerned about the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant, which prompted public health officials to recommend the same indoor mask guidelines as a preventive measure two weeks ago.
Davis said that he expects the new authorization to continue to be effective until an “improvement” in community transmission is observed, but he warned that if cases continue to increase, further measures may be needed.
