LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Masks will once again be mandatory on all public transportation in Los Angeles County, including buses, trains, taxis and service vehicles, according to a new health order for COVID-19, effective Friday.
The order will also again require masks at all closed public transport centers, including airports and bus terminals.
Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said on Thursday that the order was based on the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s view that wearing masks in transit remains an essential step in preventing the spread of COVID-19.
“They are experts,” Ferrer told reporters during an online briefing. “They decided that at this point, this requirement is necessary for public health, and it resonates with us.
At the urging of the CDC, the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday appealed a decision made earlier this week by a federal judge in Florida that repealed a U.S. government rule requiring masks to be worn on public transportation, especially on planes. .
U.S. District Judge Catherine Kimball Miesel ruled that the CDC had exceeded its authority in issuing the mandate to wear masks for transportation systems. But on Wednesday, the CDC issued a statement saying it continued to believe that the requirement for masks in indoor transport “remains necessary for public health”.
“The CDC will continue to monitor the state of public health to determine whether such an order remains necessary,” the agency said in a statement. “The CDC believes that this is a legal order, within the legal powers of the CDC to protect public health.
In response to Misel’s decision Monday, Los Angeles County public transportation agencies announced that the masks would become optional, including on board Metrolink trains and Los Angeles County buses and railroads. Los Angeles International Airport and Hollywood Burbank Airport have also announced that masks are optional.
Ferrer said the county’s renewed order – which will take effect at 12:01 a.m. Friday – would restore the order for masks in all these settings. The rule will not apply to people on board aircraft that are outside the county’s jurisdiction.
Ferrer said he expects the cities of Pasadena and Long Beach, which have their own independent health departments, to coordinate with the county and also restore the requirement for masks in public transport and transport hubs. This would mean that the airport in Long Beach will also be affected.
It was not clear how the airport requirement would apply. The Transport Security Administration announced this week that it would no longer impose rules on wearing masks at airports in response to a federal judge’s ruling.
Officials from both Metro and Metrolink have issued statements that they will abide by the county’s order and will again demand masks on board trains and buses from Friday.
Ferrer said he felt “really, really sorry” that the new district ordinance was likely to create confusion among residents who felt “whiplash” due to rapidly changing rules. But she noted that the CDC has never changed its recommendations on wearing masks on public transportation, and said the Florida court’s decision was made by a “federal judge with little experience in public health” who called into question the CDC’s credibility.
Ferrer said public transport can often be crowded, putting people in cramped environments with sometimes little ventilation, conditions that could stimulate the spread of the virus.
She stressed that there was still a “high transmission” of COVID-19 in the county and that the infectious sub-variant BA.2 of the virus was still spreading – now accounting for 84% of all local cases undergoing special tests to identify variants. . A pair of branches of BA.2 have now also been identified, one of which is already linked to a “significant spread” of cases in parts of New York.
While BA.2 is blamed for the growing number of cases, these cases have not yet led to a jump in hospitalizations due to the virus. In fact, hospitalizations continue to decline. But Ferrer said that did not reduce the risk of developing new and potentially more dangerous variants of the virus the more it circulated.
The virus “still equates to a serious illness for some people,” she said. “It can still cause, even in people who have a mild illness when they first become infected, it can still cause a good percentage of people to ‘long COVID.'”
During the pandemic, Los Angeles County often imposed stricter COVID mandates than those required by the state and federal governments. It was one of the first jurisdictions to impose widespread mandates for indoor camouflage and to support masks for large-scale outdoor events, even when such restrictions were eased elsewhere.
The county on Thursday reported another 2,123 infections, bringing the total number of pandemics to 2,857,772. Ferrer said the seven-day average daily number of new cases in the county is now 1,261, up from 1,017 in the previous week. The average daily percentage of people tested positive for the virus was 1.8%.
Another 13 COVID-related deaths were reported on Thursday, raising the total death toll to 31,913.
According to state data, as of Thursday, there were 224 COVID-positive patients in district hospitals, down from 230 on Wednesday. Of these patients, 22 had been treated in intensive care less than 28 days earlier.
Copyright 2022, City News Service, Inc.
Copyright © 2022 by City News Service, Inc. All rights reserved.
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