Breaking ranks with her county’s public health agency, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger Friday called on the governor to immediately relax COVID-19 mask-wearing requirements to align with eased guidelines announced by federal authorities for fully vaccinated people.
“Los Angeles County has made tremendous progress vaccinating residents, including those in our hard-hit communities,” Barger said in a statement. “Furthermore, our positivity rate is less than 1% and our case rate remains low. While we still want to keep our communities safe, I am encouraged by the new guidance from the CDC (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and believe that the state and Los Angeles County should immediately align with the new federal recommendations.”
The CDC released guidance Thursday saying people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can largely stop wearing masks in most indoor and outdoor situations. 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.
The announcement, however, has set off confusion, since many states and local jurisdictions — including California and Los Angeles County — still have mask requirements in place. The CDC only releases general guidance, but individual jurisdictions can impose restrictions based on local virus circumstances.
L.A. County requirements allow fully vaccinated residents to shed masks while indoors with other fully vaccinated people. But mask mandates remain in place for everyone working at or patronizing businesses — such as grocery stores, restaurants or retail shops. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said the state and county were reviewing the new CDC guidance, but changes in local regulations were unlikely to occur for at least another week. She stressed that mask mandates remain in place largely to protect workers and customers at worksites, and state occupational health and safety regulators need to set policy for masking and social distancing in the workplace.
Ferrer said Cal-OSHA regulators are set to meet next Thursday to consider a set of recommended workplace requirements. And until that happens, people will still be required to wear masks in such indoor settings.
“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.”
In a letter sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom Friday, Barger noted that the county cannot ease its restrictions until the state takes action.
“As we return to normalcy and rapidly increase vaccinations, I believe it is appropriate for CDPH (California Department of Public Health) and Cal-OSHA to change the existing distancing and masking requirements in alignment with the CDC,” Barger wrote.
She added that the county “is committed to implementing safe, sensible directives that still protect our recovery and prevent regression to high positive case rates. We especially want to ensure protections for workers, particularly those who work indoors, including on public transportation and in schools, large venues and congregate housing such as jails, shelters and skilled nursing facilities.”
The masking issue is likely to become thornier in coming days, possibly putting merchants in the unenviable position of trying to determine which workers — and which customers — are fully vaccinated. Ferrer noted there is no standardized system for verifying vaccination status, opening the door for people who are not vaccinated to simply shed their masks, knowing there is no process for proving whether they’ve been inoculated.
Hoping to dispel any possible confusion among travelers, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a statement Friday noting that “at this time if you travel, you are still required to wear a mask on planes, buses, trains and other forms of public transportation traveling into, within or out of the United States, and in U.S. transportation hubs such as airports and stations.”
COVID vaccinations efforts expanded this week to include youth aged 12- 15. Most providers in the county began offering shots to that age group on Thursday, but the city of Los Angeles’ sites did not start until Friday. Vaccinations are now available appointment-free at most sites in the county.
Ferrer said Thursday there are roughly 500,000 county residents aged 12 to 15.
“It is a key group of individuals for us to reach so that we can increase our coverage in terms of the county’s total population,” Ferrer said Thursday.
She noted that while younger residents have consistently had lower numbers of COVID infections during the pandemic, infections do happen. She said that during COVID surges experienced by the county, between 10% and 17% of cases were occurring in people under age 18.
“So as a reminder, it’s important to note that there are in fact cases among children and that children are particularly vulnerable whenever we see an increase in community transmission,” she said. “So they, just like us, benefit from keeping community transmission rates down very low.”
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Tom Scott says
In this past year I have regularly seen people driving alone in their cars with masks on. So absurd.
Kay says
I also see people riding bikes, walking dogs, jogging, etc. ALONE outside wearing masks. Geesh!
David Brantner says
That’s a persons right Mr. Scott. Only question is, what business is it of yours ? It’s their health and their car. Not yours.
Tim Scott says
I’m mostly just lazy so a lot of times when I get in the car I don’t bother taking it off. I mean, I wear my pants in the car too and they technically aren’t necessary either…
David Brantner says
Why doesn’t Bargers office deal with the proliferation of ILLEGAL POT GROWS that is turning the AV into “Cartel Territory” ? Water theft – no problem. Steal someone’s land – no problem. Hannity had his segment with Garcia, exploring the AV pot fields referencing “CARTEL” every other sentence. Now your worried about the economy ? He just drove a stake in the heart of it while Barger screams about a damn face mask. The County could solve the problem, but the County wants the money while screaming “nothing we can do”. We need leadership, not excuse for not providing what we pay our damn taxes for.
Tim Scott says
LOLOLOLOL…Hannity? Hannity is your source? Trump’s business partner? One of three clients that shared the lawyer that is still in jail? Why do you take anything that lying fool says seriously?
Sunshine says
Who the F still believes anything Hannity says?
Matt says
He isn’t even a news guy. He is an entertainer, a commentary piece so he can so what ever he wants about anything. But sadly yes, a blinded percentage takes what Hannity says as news and fact even though the entire channel has to register with the FCC as entertainment and not news based on this exact thing.
Moi says
Is this Garcia’s ticket to re-election by going on Hannity to push a local issue? Really.
Garcia has little else to recommend him other than voting to overthrow the election.
But, hey, there are voters in the AV who support just that.
Claire says
Kathryn Barger is addressing the communities concerns about illegal grows. This has been a concern before Mike Garcia tried to make this his cause, and get the credit. This article is a different issue.
Matt says
But Mike Garcia just wants to get on TV and ride his cause to reelection. Not much more that Republicans fear more than the scare tactic of Mexicans and refugees are coming to ruin this country. Yay, Garcia is coming to fight for us…..RIIIIIGHT.
Tim Scott says
I think he gave up on reelection. He is mostly playing the Matt Gaetz/Marjorie Greene play…don’t even try to do the job, just parley being a GOP congressclown into a job as a “conservative pundit” (ie peddler of outrage and nonsense) on one of the “news networks” that the republican thirst to be lied to has created.
Democrat Dave says
The word for Republican appeal to fear is called “poutrage”.
A research study once found that conservative brains had larger amygdales than liberal brains.
The amygdala controls our responses such as fear. Their larger amygdalas make them susceptible to fear mongering. They can’t help it. They’re built that way.
Compare Black families who are interviewed right after one of their young unarmed men has been killed by a cop. They are more composed than white nationalists whining about their perceived grievances. The poor babies.
The poor babies whine and fuss about coal miners in West Virginia or workers who started the Keystone pipeline. Yeah, like they give a hoot about those folks. They’re just repeating what Fox News says.
Claire says
Hannity, Mike Garcia and Stephen Miller coming to rescue us from the Mexican cartels, because all of a sudden out of nowhere, the open borders have turned the A. V. into a giant illegal operation.
Claire says
What better way to get re-elected than to win by fear-mongering and deception.
Tim Scott says
The “community’s concerns about illegal grows” is flatly stupid and playing into Wrecks’ hands. He has all of his pet politicians tub thumping about a “crime” that is technically the same as the guy pushing his corn on the cob cart down my block today. A business without a license.
The ONLY thing driving this “OMG we gotta get these ‘illegal grows’ stamped out OMG OMG OMG” panic is that THEY COMPETE WITH WRECKS’ OWN BUSINESS.
Wrecks said there would be no licensing grows in Lancaster without a special exemption from the city council. Then Wrecks and his rubber stamp gang authorized one exemption…to a partnership of Wrecks supporters and cronies that almost certainly includes Wrecks in some under the table payoffs (like ten to one they pay ‘legal fees’ to the Parris law firm.)
And of course everyone knows that one of the “known hazards” of illegal grows is that they aren’t inspected by building inspectors so “must be a fire hazard.” No doubt the one licensed grow, owned by Wrecks and Co, would certainly need some fire safety consulting…hey…who’s in THAT business? What a convenient way to funnel payoffs to the mayor of Palmdale!
And so it goes. People rant and rave about a petty misdemeanor while the grossest corruption of city government in the state robs them absolutely blind. It is incredibly sad.
Tim Scott says
Barger’s “hard hit communities” includes the AV, which trails the rest of the state in vaccination rates by ten points. Maybe instead of sweating at the state to ease restrictions she should be trying to find out why her constituents are being left behind by the county yet again.
Could it be because we make REALLY stupid choices about who should represent us?