LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Los Angeles County health officials Monday recommended everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks indoors due to increased circulation of the highly transmissible Delta variant.
According to the L.A. County Department of Public Health, Delta variants comprised nearly half of all variants sequenced locally in the week ended June 12. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has noted that Delta variants are now responsible for about one in every five new infections across the country, up from approximately one in 10 the week before.
Due to the rate of spread of the variant, first detected in India, health officials have issued a strong recommendation for people to wear masks indoors in settings such a grocery or retail stores; theaters and family entertainment centers and workplaces where vaccination status is not immediately known.
“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 said in a statement.
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Public Health said fully vaccinated people appeared to be well protected from infections with Delta variants, however those with only one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines were not as well protected.
On Monday, L.A. County reported 259 new cases of COVID-19 and three new deaths, bringing the countywide total to 1,249,560 positive cases of COVID-19 and 24,480 deaths. There were 238 COVID-19 patients hospitalized.
Health officials said the low number of cases and deaths were likely due to weekend reporting delays.
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With testing results available for more than 7,013,000 individuals, the county’s overall positivity rate was 17%. The daily test positivity rate was 0.9%.
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