UCLA reinstates mask mandate amid COVID surge

LOS ANGELES — The University of California, Los Angeles said Thursday it will reinstate an indoor mask policy as coronavirus cases surge in the nation’s most populous state, which now forecasts hospitalizations will nearly triple in the next month.

UCLA’S 45,000 students and all faculty, staff and visitors will be required to wear masks inside starting Friday following “a consistent rise in COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles County and on our campus,” school officials said in a statement.

Los Angeles County’s public health director, Barbara Ferrer, applauded UCLA’S decision, which she said comes amid a “substantial uptick” in cases across the region.

“We encourage businesses and institutions to go ahead and institute those safety protections that make the most sense, including masking requirements when indoors,” Ferrer said during a weekly briefing.

Statewide, the number of confirmed coronaviru infections is averaging more than 10,000 per day, but that’s considered a significant undercount because so many people are testing at home and not reporting the results.

California’s hospitalizations are approaching 2,000 after falling below 1,000 at the lowest point last month. State models forecast the number will grow to about 5,200 by late June, the highest since February but a far cry from the more than 15,000 in hospitals at the start of the year.

Vaccinations and immunity from people who have already had the disease are keeping many cases less severe, Ferrer said.

California’s surge was most pronounced within the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, which this week topped 50 new cases per 100,000 residents, up from 18 per 100,000 one month ago.