Starting at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, Los Angeles County will require that people attending large outdoor gatherings, including concerts, sporting events, and festivals, wear a face mask.
"As the highly infectious Delta variant continues to spread, wearing masks — regardless of vaccination status — indoors and in crowded settings, including at outdoor mega events, reduces the risk of being infected with and transmitting COVID-19," the L.A. County Department of Public Health said in a statement Tuesday.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The Delta variant is highly contagious, and causing breakthrough infections for people who are fully vaccinated. Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, a deputy health officer for Orange County, California, said last week that COVID is "lingering in the air, so there is still a potential to get COVID when you're outdoors and in close contact or at least in close proximity to others, and you're in social events where people are spitting, singing, coughing, sneezing right in the air that you're breathing."
-
‘Peak consumption has become the Holy Grail of the energy debate’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Nadine Menendez gets 4.5 years in bribery caseSpeed Read Menendez's husband was previously sentenced to 11 years in prison
-
Koreans detained in US Hyundai raid return homeSpeed Read Over 300 Koreans were detained at the plant last week
-
Quit-smoking ads are being put outUnder the radar The dissolution of a government-funded campaign could lead to more smokers in the future
-
Sloth fever shows no signs of slowing downThe explainer The vector-borne illness is expanding its range
-
Texas declares end to measles outbreakSpeed Read The vaccine-preventable disease is still spreading in neighboring states, Mexico and Canada
-
RFK Jr. shuts down mRNA vaccine funding at agencySpeed Read The decision canceled or modified 22 projects, primarily for work on vaccines and therapeutics for respiratory viruses
-
Forever chemicals were found in reusable menstrual products. That is nothing new for women.Under the Radar Toxic chemicals are all too common in such products
-
Not just a number: how aging rates vary by countryThe explainer Inequality is a key factor
-
Children's health has declined in the USThe Explainer It's likely a sign of larger systemic issues
-
Measles cases surge to 33-year highSpeed Read The infection was declared eliminated from the US in 2000 but has seen a resurgence amid vaccine hesitancy
