This week, a growing chorus of public health officials is heard across the country, consisting of a single word: “Masks.”
Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer told Zoom reporters today: “Everyone aged two and older should wear a mask at indoor gatherings and indoor venues, such as businesses, restaurants and indoor schools.
Similarly, last Friday, a group of Gulf health officials issued a rare joint statement strongly recommending – but not requiring – residents to wear indoor veils again.
“If you recently chose not to wear a mask in indoor public places, now is a good time to start again,” Dr. George Hahn, deputy health officer in Santa Clara County, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
A little further south, the Pacific Grove United School District in Monterey, California, on Monday decided to oblige all students and staff to wear masks indoors, starting Tuesday, as infections increase there.
School districts in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Illinois did the same this week.
Senior Biden officials warned Wednesday that one-third of Americans live in communities the CDC considers high-risk (orange in the map below) and recommends masks be mandatory in those areas.
Areas in orange show high CDC transmission
“We call on local leaders to promote the use of prevention strategies such as masks in public indoors and increase access to testing and treatment,” said Rochelle Valenski, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About two weeks ago, the CDC issued a new recommendation that all two-year-olds wear masks “in closed areas of public transport (such as airplanes, trains, etc.) and transportation centers (such as airports, train stations, etc.).” The CDC also encouraged people to wear face masks “in crowded or poorly ventilated areas, such as airport planes.”
New York, which had some of the toughest requirements last year, will not return to camouflage, although it fell into the high-risk category this week amid a spike in hospitalizations. Mayor Eric Adams said he did not want to impose masks, although the CDC recommended it.
“If every option that comes up turns to thoughts of exclusion, panic, we won’t function as a city,” Adams said, according to the New York Times.
Would you think of them as schools? “No,” Adams replied.
The answer is different in Los Angeles, where Ferrer reiterated last week, plus a version of what she said today: “Once we are defined as a high level of community, we will return to the requirement for these masks indoors.”
The county is not yet there, but the growing rate of Covid’s spread in Los Angeles has led it to move from the “low” level of the CDC virus to “medium” today.
According to federal and county figures, the local cumulative seven-day rate of new Covid cases rose to 202 per 100,000 residents, from about 176 per 100,000 last week. With more than 200, the county is now considered to have “medium” levels of community, a designation that comes with recommendations for enhanced precautions against the spread of the virus.
However, this move will not cause any immediate changes in local health regulations. Los Angeles had already stepped up prevention recommendations that were in line with CDC guidelines – such as camouflage on public transportation and high-risk places such as hospitals, doctors’ offices and homeless shelters.
“We hope that by implementing strong community prevention measures we will avoid over-uploading,” Ferrer told reporters.
This means that “businesses and people should not be afraid of stricter security measures,” she said, noting that they include indoor disguise.
According to the CDC guidelines, middle-class counties will move to high if the percentage of new hospital admissions related to the virus reaches 10 per 100,000 inhabitants or if 10% of the county’s hospital beds are occupied by COVID-positive patients.
Ferrer said today that the current rate of new Covid intake in the county is 3.4 per 100,000 residents, and the percentage of hospital beds occupied by COVID-positive patients is just under 1.7%.
About a week ago, however, the daily hospitalizations of people with Covid in the region began to increase. From 252 last Thursday, they rose to 312 virus-positive patients at county hospitals this Monday, 327 on Tuesday, 363 on Wednesday and 379 today. Although the numbers are still relatively small, this is about a 50% increase in a week.
Over the same period, cases jumped from 3407 last Thursday to 4725 today, an increase of 38% in one week.
The average daily percentage of people tested positive for the virus, although still relatively low, rose by 34% from a 7-day average positive test from 2.6% last Thursday to 3.5% today.
Because hospitalizations usually delay infections by several weeks, the growing number of cases and positive tests appear to indicate a significant increase in Covid-related hospitalizations by the end of the month.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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