LA County will require masks indoors regardless of vaccination status starting July 17th

Almost everyone in Los Angeles County will have to once again wear masks inside — even those who are fully vaccinated — beginning 11:59 p.m. Saturday, July 17, as health officials react to an uptick in coronavirus transmission in recent weeks.

County public health officials announced the return of the indoor face-covering mandate during a Thursday, July 15, briefing.

The order will have some exceptions, LA County Health Officer Muntu Davis said during the Thursday briefing, but will look largely like the masking order that was in place countywide before June 15.

Davis didn’t fully detail what he said would be some exceptions but said for example, people could still go out to eat and take off their masks only while eating and drinking

Davis said the county felt the need to act before transmission gets even worse, and requiring nearly everyone to wear masks is the least disruptive option available.

“This is probably one of the more effective” strategies, he said, “as well as the least limiting in terms of business operations.”

Davis said that the health order is going into place not necessarily to protect people who are fully vaccinated, but because there’s too much room for error when allowing some people to go maskless.

“I don’t think, in general, that self-attestation is actually good in” this circumstance, he said.

“There may be some people who are unvaccinated and don’t want to make that known that they’re unvaccinated,” Davis added, “and that just puts others at risk.”

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