Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer made the announcement during a live-streamed meeting. “Given the reduction in hospitalization numbers, we hope that the admission rate in the coming days will remain below 10 new admissions per 100,000 residents and Los Angeles County will soon officially move from (the Centers for Disease Control) to the ‘average’ community level.” , Ferrer said. “As I noted last week, any indication that the county will soon move to the mid-community level would be a good reason not to move forward with universal indoor coverage.” For most of the pandemic, Los Angeles County has required masks in certain indoor spaces, including health care facilities, subway trains and buses, airports, jails and homeless shelters. The new order would have extended the requirement to all indoor public spaces, including shared offices, manufacturing facilities, warehouses, retail stores, restaurants and bars, theaters and schools. Supervisor Kathryn Barger welcomed the decision to suspend the reinstatement of the rule. “Non-enforceable orders don’t work,” Barger said in a statement Thursday afternoon. “We must continue to effectively manage our mandates and resources in the fight against COVID-19.” Supervisor Janice Hahn joined her in opposing an order, saying she feared imposing such a rule would be “too divisive for Los Angeles County.” “I honestly think there is a significant amount of the population that is unwilling to accept mask mandates at this point,” Hahn said. “And many of them, the ones who contacted me, pointed out that we have more tools now than we did at the beginning of the pandemic.” The county entered the “high” category two weeks ago when the average daily rate of COVID-related hospital admissions rose above 10 per 100,000 residents. As of July 21, the rate was 11.7 admissions per 100,000 residents. Earlier this week, as residents awaited the decision, several cities — Beverly Hills, El Segundo, Pasadena and Long Beach — announced they would enforce an indoor mask mandate if implemented. The El Segundo City Council voted during a special meeting Tuesday night against imposing a potential mask mandate. The Beverly Hills City Council held a similar vote Monday night. The cities of Long Beach and Pasadena — which both operate their own health departments separately from the county — announced Tuesday that they would not issue mask mandates even if the county did. On Wednesday, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said cases may have slowed, but he would support whatever health officials decide. “If they say this is something we need to do for a few weeks to help get kids into schools, I’ll support it,” Garcetti told reporters. “But it looks like it may have peaked in terms of the number of cases. If that happens with hospitalization as well, we may not have to go to mandated coverage.” City News Service contributed to this report. Copyright © 2022 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.
