California’s Easing Mask Mandates, But LA County Isn’t Playing Along

California’s statewide indoor mask requirement will expire on Feb. 15 for vaccinated individuals, but the change won't impact Los Angeles County.

Gov. Gavin Newsome said Monday the requirement to mask indoors is expiring due to the state’s COVID-19 case rate decreasing by 65% since its Omicron peak and the stabilization of hospitalizations rates.

NBC Los Angeles reports that the change in state policy will affect counties that do not have local mandates of their own governing face coverings — such as Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties.

But Los Angeles County — where local mandates exist — mask requirements will remain in effect for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people in indoor settings. This includes large outdoor mega-events, such as Sunday's Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium, the outlet reports.

LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer unveiled metrics for a possible relaxing of the county's masking orders last week, saying the mandate will be dropped at outdoor "mega-events" and outdoors at schools and child-care centers if COVID-positive hospitalizations in the county fall below 2,500 for seven consecutive days, NBC Los Angeles reports.

There were 2,773 COVID-positive patients in county hospitals as of Monday.

"Despite the encouraging news of declining cases, test positivity and hospitalizations, sadly we continue to see a high number of people dying due to COVID-19," Ferrer said in a statement. "With an average of 70 deaths reported each day last week, it remains clear that residents who are unvaccinated, immunocompromised, or living in low-resourced communities, face additional risk and are more likely to become seriously ill and die from COVID19."

NBC Los Angeles reports the county reported another 29 deaths and 4,360 new COVID cases on Monday.