A sign is posted at the Grand Central Market on July 19, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.
Mario Tama | beautiful pictures
California will introduce statewide mask-wearing requirements to indoor public places regardless of immunization status next month, the state’s top health official announced Monday.
The mask rule will go into effect Wednesday and will remain in place until January 15, according to Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Department of Health and Human Services.
California’s public health agencies also recommend that residents returning to the state from travel and visiting tourists get tested for Covid within three to five days of their arrival.
America’s most populous state is also requiring those attending events with more than 1,000 attendees to submit a negative Covid test if they have no proof of vaccination. Attendees must submit the test within one day of the event if it is an antigen test and within two days if it is a PCR test.
“We know people are tired and longing for normalcy, honestly, so am I,” Ghaly told reporters on Monday’s call. “That said, this is a critical moment where we have a tool that we know works and can work.”
Ghaly said the mandate to wear masks is necessary to help reduce Covid infections in California, which has increased 47% since Thanksgiving. The state’s top health official said the heavily mutated strain of the omicron virus has caused pandemic uncertainty.
California reported its first confirmed omicron case in the US on December 1.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has also made face coverings mandatory statewide for indoor public places unless the business requires vaccinations. The New York mandate goes into effect on Monday and will also run through January 15.
Countries are adopting different approaches to combating Covid as hospitalizations increase across the US. Colorado Governor Jared Polis on Friday said widely available vaccines have made statewide mask regulations unnecessary. He said people are individually responsible for their vaccinations and for the possible health consequences if they don’t get vaccinated.
“The emergency is over,” Polis told Colorado Public Radio. “Community Health [officials] don’t tell people what to wear; that is not their job. ”
“Everybody has more than enough opportunity to get vaccinated,” says Polis. “At this point, if you haven’t been vaccinated, it’s really your own fault.”
About 66,500 Americans have been hospitalized with Covid-19, according to seven-day average of Health and Human Services data through Monday, up 22% over the past two weeks. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the delta variant of Covid is increasing the number of hospital admissions.
The omicron variant is present in more than two dozen states. The White House’s chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said earlier this month that there was no doubt that omicrons were spreading through communities in the US.
This variant has quickly spread in the United Kingdom, where its first death from omicrons was reported on Monday. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said omicrons now represent 20 per cent of infections in the UK, and the variant is spreading at an “extraordinary” rate.
It is not clear whether omicrons typically result in milder or more severe symptoms than in previous variants. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the rate of infection was absolutely worrying.
“So I think the idea that this is a milder version of the virus, I think that’s something we need to put on one side and just realize the sheer speed at which it’s increasing in the population,” Johnson said. numbers,” Johnson said Monday.
