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Lower than per week after a photograph surfaced of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Magic Johnson maskless at SoFi Stadium, County Supervisor Katheryn Barger has ratcheted up the stress on well being officers to change LA’s strict masks mandate for outside mega-events earlier than the Tremendous Bowl kicks off there on February 13.
After the mayor was noticed maskless on the NFC Championship Sport, Barger issued a press release calling for an finish to “blanket Covid masking insurance policies.” Shortly thereafter, Barger despatched a little-noticed official request to the County Public Well being Division, asking it to “revisit the masking necessities” and align with the state’s less-stringent steerage for outside mega-events.
With out mentioning the mayor by identify Barger noticed, “This previous weekend, we witnessed greater than 70,000 followers in attendance for the Nationwide Soccer League NFC Championship recreation at SoFi Stadium, with a overwhelming majority not carrying masks.” A fast look on the “Rams Fam Cam” from the sport confirms that assertion. Barger known as the shortage of compliance “extraordinarily discouraging.”
Barger stated that LA Public Well being officers have indicated “we’ve not noticed any Covid-19 spikes ensuing from prior video games this season from video games at that stadium.” She additionally maintained that she totally expects subsequent week’s Tremendous Bowl, additionally at SoFi, “will see even decrease masking compliance.”
Failure to make the change would, she maintained, “once more name into query why we’ve stricter county mandates in place which can be neither adopted nor enforced, inflicting extra emotions of frustration for residents who’ve been topic to masking necessities extra strictly enforced in different settings like colleges, eating places, and retail.”
The logic of easing a regulation just because it’s not adopted or enforced is just not air tight; There’s additionally the choice of accelerating enforcement. However native officers have been loath to do this, saying they like “educating” enterprise house owners, particularly after restrictions on eating places early within the pandemic roused strenuous objections from that sector. As of this second, nevertheless, LA Public Well being officers are standing their floor on masking at outside mega-events.
“This isn’t the suitable time to cease carrying our masks indoors and in crowded outside settings,” stated Public Well being Director Barbara Ferrer yesterday. She did, nevertheless, define a framework for lowering Covid mitigation measures as the present Omicron surge fades, however she warned that, even after the surge, the menace degree would nonetheless be thought of “excessive” and numbers would want to come back down significantly earlier than restrictions are lifted.
Board of Supervisors Chairperson Holly Mitchell additionally rebuffed Barger this week, saying Covid transmission stays too excessive within the county to loosen up the masking rule.
Barger posted a press release to her website online concerning the letter she despatched to Public Well being officers. You may learn it under.
Los Angeles County residents deserve readability and consistency. At present, LA County’s Well being Officer Order concerning the outside masks mandate is the one one stricter than the State of California’s. I need to emphasize that carrying masks in high-risk indoor settings continues to be an essential instrument to fight COVID-19. Nevertheless, State well being specialists have established that outside occasions and outside college environments are secure for residents to do and not using a masks. Aligning with the state is the simplest option to preserve the group’s confidence in our security protocols.
With this in thoughts, I despatched a letter to the Division of Public Well being this week formally asking to align with State steerage. With the Tremendous Bowl simply over per week away the place hundreds of followers will arrive from outdoors LA County, I anticipate we can’t see very a lot compliance with our present masks mandate. We should not proceed to have mandates in place that are not adopted or enforced. This solely continues to sow additional misery and frustration for LA County residents. As we close to the two-year mark of this pandemic, it’s crucial that we defend the general public well being and public belief of our communities.