LA County no longer imposing mask mandate after COVID cases decline

As COVID-19 cases continue to decline, Los Angeles County health officials decided to pause the implementation of a universal indoor mask mandate.
Initially, the mask mandate was scheduled to be reimposed on Friday, July 29 but positive case rates, hospitalizations and deaths related to COVID-19 have been leveling off and trending downward in LA County.
Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said during a COVID-19- briefing Thursday that the county’s average daily number of new COVID cases over the past week was about 5,900 per day, down from 6,750 a week ago. There were 1,239 COVID-positive patients hospitalized as of Thursday, down from 1,329 a week ago.
She also noted that the average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus has been holding mostly steady.
According to Ferrer, new infection numbers have been declining steadily this week, “potentially signaling a downward trend in cases.” She said hospitalizations have also begun declining “for the first time since mid- April.”
Los Angeles County moved into the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “high” level of COVID-19 community activity earlier this month, when the average daily rate of virus-related hospital admissions rose to 10.5 per 100,000 residents, surpassing the threshold of 10 per 100,000. Several other California counties are in the “high” category, but LA County was the only considering a mask mandate.