Los Angeles County to require masks indoors even when vaccinated as Covid-19 cases spike

LOS ANGELES, California — Los Angeles County’s public health officer says a rapid and sustained increase in Covid-19 cases in the nation’s largest county requires a return to mandatory mask-wearing indoors even when people are vaccinated.

Dr. Muntu Davis told a virtual press conference Thursday that a public health order requiring masks indoors will go into effect Saturday at 11:59 p.m. He didn’t detail what he said would be some exceptions.

Davis says the county has been recording more than 1,000 new cases each day for a week and that there is now “substantial community transmission.”

On Thursday, there were 1,537 new cases and hospitalizations have now topped 400.

Meantime, the University of California system announced Thursday it will require coronavirus vaccinations for students, faculty and staff to return to campuses this fall.

The moves are prompted by a sharp increase in virus cases, many of them the highly transmissible Delta variant.