L.A. County
time, she said if there's a steep drop in transmission numbers, the county may want to be cautious about moving too quickly on the indoor masking mandate.
“If our cases really start a steep decline, it's likely that a couple weeks from now our hospitalizations will also decline,” she said. “We're on the cusp between medium and high (transmission levels). It isn't going to take much to move us back into that medium community level if we can get our case numbers to go lower.”
Still, should the county remain in the CDC's highlevel category, she also reiterated why she believes a masking requirement may be justified.
“Of all the tools we have used in this pandemic to counter the spread of COVID, indoor masking is one of the simplest, and turns out to be very effective, tools that we have that can counter rapid spread of the virus,” Ferrer said.
The long-anticipated deadline spurred sharp criticism as it grew nearer.
An alliance of Los Angeles County business groups called this week on health officials to abandon the plans for the mandate, saying the move would be “heavy-handed” and a burden on businesses that will be forced to enforce the rule.
“This is not a debate about choosing between lives and livelihoods,” Tracy Hernandez, founding CEO of the Los Angeles County Business Federation, or BizFed, said in a statement.
“This is a discussion about educating and empowering Angelenos to make smart choices about protecting their health, our workers and the region's collective ability to weather this latest wave of infections. We can do better than a heavy-handed mandate at this stage of pandemic recovery and endemic recalibration.”
Dozens of counties across the state also have moved into the high transmission category, but Los Angeles is the only county that has announced plans to reinstate a mask mandate. Ferrer repeatedly has defended the move, calling it a simple yet effective way of slowing virus transmission and preventing hospitals from becoming overburdened.
BizFed expressed support for a voluntary rule — which is already in effect — but said forcing businesses to enforce a mandate will “stymie economic recovery, confuse COVID-weary residents and further erode public trust in governing bodies.”
Ferrer told reporters Thursday that the county never has expected businesses to become enforcement agencies of the mask mandate, asking primarily that they inform workers of the requirement and provide them masks. She said in terms of enforcement, the county always has relied more heavily on education efforts in hopes of achieving voluntary compliance.
The county reported an additional 8,091 COVID-19 cases Friday, raising the cumulative total from throughout the pandemic to 3,253,323. The daily number of cases announced by the county is believed to be an undercount because many people rely on at-home tests, the results of which are not always reported to health officials.
The 20 new virus-related fatalities lifted the county's overall death toll to 32,604.
The average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus was 15.7% as of Friday.
Los Angeles County moved into the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's high level of COVID-19 community activity last week, when the average daily rate of virus-related hospital admission rose to 10.5 per 100,000 residents, surpassing the threshold of 10 per 100,000. On Thursday, Ferrer said the admission rate over the past week rose to 11.4 per 100,000.
Although dozens of counties in California are also in the high virus activity category, Los Angeles is the only one considering a mask mandate. Ferrer again defended the move Thursday, saying the virus is continuing to disproportionately affect Black, Latino and low-income residents, and it is causing severe illness among some patients.
She said wearing a mask is a simple and effective way to help curb transmission.
She acknowledged a lack of any formalized enforcement plan, saying the county relies primarily on education in hopes of persuading people to wear face coverings.
She also said the county does not expect business owners to become enforcement agents.
“We rely heavily on people understanding why it's important for us to add in this layer of protection at this point, and most people in the past have gone ahead and been compliant,” she said. “We'll continue to work with everyone and make sure there's good information.”
She noted that during previous mandates, very few businesses were cited for violations.
If a new mask mandate takes effect, it will remain in place until the county falls back to the medium virus activity category for two weeks.
Masks are already still mandated in some indoor spaces — health care facilities, transit hubs, on transit vehicles, airports, correctional facilities and shelters. A universal mandate would spread the requirement to all indoor public spaces, including shared office spaces, manufacturing facilities, retail stores, indoor events, indoor restaurants and bars and schools.
“What we have learned over the course of the pandemic is that this is a dangerous virus,” Ferrer said in a statement Friday.
“We benefit enormously for all the effective tools at hand, and they allow most of us to fully live our lives: we travel, we go to parties, we enjoy concerts, plays and sporting events, and we get together with those we love. However, when transmission is really high, we would be foolish to be complacent and not layer in additional protections that help those most vulnerable also fully live their lives,” Ferrer added.