Los Angeles County holds off on indoor mask mandate amid rising COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer left the option of a mask mandate on the table, but if and only if 10% of county hospital beds are filled with COVID patients.Right now that number is only 6.9%, and the rate of increase has slowed in the past week. Ferrer said it's not a forgone conclusion that the county will reach that critical level during the current surge.
This is a reversal from previous policy in the county that moving into the CDC's "high" transmission level would spur a mandate. The changing guidance comes as the health department has dangled the prospect of an impending mask mandate for weeks in a row for the second time this year. As of Wednesday, Los Angeles County is recording more than 5,000 daily cases, the highest number recorded since Aug. 1, according to an ABC News analysis of health departmentIt's also an 80% increase from the 2,805 cases recorded just two weeks ago on Nov. 23, the analysis found.
What's more, a total of 1,293 people are hospitalized with the virus as of Wednesday, a figure not seen since July 18, according to the analysis.
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