In light of declined COVID-19 spread, public health officials announced Wednesday that fully vaccinated people in Los Angeles County will no longer be required to wear masks in certain indoor situations.
The updated rules, which go into effect Friday, Feb. 25 at 12:01 a.m., allow establishments, businesses and venues that verify vaccination status to offer optional masking for vaccinated individuals, according to a statement from the L.A. County Department of Public Health.
“When transmission is very high, we need to create the most complete shield we can, so that’s why it’s important that we layer in all the protections at hand,” Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in the statement. “Because vaccines are one of these tools, with lower rates of hospital admissions and COVID hospitalizations, it is appropriate in settings verifying vaccination or negative test status, that we transition to strongly recommending masking instead of requiring masking.”
Unvaccinated people are still required to mask up indoors, according to the statement, and establishments that do not have vaccination verification will still have to require masking.
The positivity rate on Wednesday for L.A. County was 2.3%, while the peak positivity rate during the Omicron surge was 22.3%, according to county public health data.
At USC, beginning March 1, students who are fully vaccinated will no longer be required to test weekly, according to an email from the university on Feb. 18. While the university said it has received the county’s new guidance and is in the process of reviewing it, the indoor mask mandate for all students and staff is still in place as of now.