The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health urged everyone to wear masks indoors in all public places moving forward as it grapples with a variant of the coronavirus.
The department issued the guidance, in which officials “strongly” recommend everyone “regardless of vaccination status” wear masks while they are indoors at public places, on Monday.
PRITZKER URGES VACCINATIONS, WARNS ABOUT DELTA VARIANT
The delta variant of the coronavirus spread quickly in recent weeks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracked that 1 in 5 new coronavirus diagnoses were of this strain, up twice as high from the previous week, the health department noted.
“Until we better understand how and to who the Delta variant is spreading, everyone should focus on maximum protection with minimum interruption to routine as all businesses operate without other restrictions, like physical distancing and capacity limits,” the department statement reads.
Despite the insistence that fully vaccinated people continue to wear masks, the public health department said such people “appear to be well protected from infections with Delta variants, however people with only one vaccine dose of Pfizer or Moderna are not as well-protected.”
“We send our deepest condolences to everyone who is mourning a loved one or friend who has passed away from COVID-19,” Barbara Ferrer, director of public health, said in a statement. “While COVID-19 vaccine provides very effective protection preventing hospitalizations and deaths against the Delta variant, the strain is proving to be more transmissible and is expected to become more prevalent. Mask wearing remains an effective tool for reducing transmission, especially indoors where the virus may be easily spread through inhalation of aerosols emitted by an infected person.”
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The department confirmed three new deaths and 259 new cases of COVID-19, which makes the total number of positive cases in Los Angeles County 1,249,560 and deaths 24,480. One of the recent deaths was someone between the ages of 65 and 79, another was somewhere between 50 and 64, and the youngest was between 30 and 49 years old.
President Joe Biden doesn’t believe the variant will lead to another national lockdown, he said on June 18.
