Mask Mandates Remain In Place In Los Angeles County Despite CDC

LOS ANGELES, CA — Don't throw away those masks just yet. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxed mask guidelines Thursday, allowing vaccinated people to largely forego masks, but mask mandates will remain in place in Los Angeles County this week.

Local mask requirements won't be changing until at least late next week, according to County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer. Local health officials are awaiting input from Occupational Health and Safety regulators before making changes to worksite masking guidelines. Since the earliest days of the pandemic, Los Angeles has imposed some of the strictest mask mandates in the nation. Such measures were largely credited for staving off catastrophic outbreaks. Across the Southland, the fully vaccinated remain a minority. About 43.5 percent of the county's residents are fully vaccinated, according to health officials. It takes about two weeks after the final dose of the vaccine for a person to be considered fully vaccinated.

Some see the guidelines change as an incentive for people to get vaccinated. Others see it as confounding. Federal officials also did not offer guidelines for how business owners and employers can verify who has actually been vaccinated.

Currently, L.A. County allows fully vaccinated residents to shed masks while indoors with other fully vaccinated people. But people must continue to wear masks while working at or patronizing businesses such as grocery stores or retail shops.

Ferrer said no changes will be immediately made to local mask-wearing requirements. She said Cal-OSHA regulators are set to meet May 20 to discuss possible adjustments to workplace masking requirements, and the county will align with any changes they approve. But until then, mask will remain mandated for everyone patronizing businesses or worksites.

"I know people are going to be impatient now and they're going to say, `No, time to get on this. Time to just eliminate all these requirements around masking,"' Ferrer said. "But that wasn't the intent, I don't think, of the CDC. I think CDC wrote in multiple places that people really do need to adhere to worker protections and state and local directives. It's important for us to remember that we do need to protect workers, particularly those workers that are in essential work environments."

According to the CDC's new guidelines, people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can largely stop wearing a mask in most indoor and outdoor situations. Local health orders supersede the guidelines, however.

The guidelines present thorny challenges for local health officials who must weigh the guidelines against the need to protect workers who are not vaccinated.

Several studies have shown the vaccines are highly effective at protecting people from the coronavirus. In California, less than 1 percent of fully vaccinated residents have gone on to be infected with COVID-19.

"Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said.

The new CDC guidance does not completely drop mask recommendations for vaccinated people. Face coverings are still recommended in some settings such as aboard planes and buses or in crowded settings such as hospitals.

Walensky also said people who are vaccinated but are "immune compromised" should "talk to your doctor before giving up your mask."

"This is an exciting and powerful moment," Walensky said of the announcement, while also urging more people to get vaccinated.

"The science is also very clear about unvaccinated people: you remain at risk of mild or severe illness, of death, or of spreading the disease," she said. "You should still mask, and you should get vaccinated right away."

Gov. Gavin Newsom indicated this week that the state will likely ease its mask mandate on June 15, when all other COVID restrictions on businesses and gatherings are set to be eliminated. Newsom told Fox11 the state will continue to make recommendations for mask-wearing in select circumstances. But he said mask-wearing will likely only be required in large-scale indoor gatherings.

"Only in those settings that are indoor," he told Fox11. "Only in those massively large settings, where people -- from around the world, not just around the country -- are convening, and where people are mixing in real dense spaces.

"Otherwise, we'll make guidance, recommendations, but no mandates and no restrictions," he said.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.