19 May Updated Masking Guidelines for Fully Vaccinated People
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released guidance indicating that people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can safely resume activities that were done prior to the pandemic.
The State will be keeping current masking guidance as it is until June 15, and LA County will do the same. This means that our guidance remains in alignment with the Health Officer Order of May 3.
It is important to note that the CDC announcement last week was not meant to eliminate current safety modifications at local and state levels, and as we have now heard from CDC, they are acknowledging the importance of maintaining local protections and recommending that there be no changes at schools, many worksites, and public transit. To prevent increased circulation of variants or virus mutations that result in new variants of concern, it remains important to do everything we know how to do to prevent transmission.
This guidance includes following sensible masking requirements that will remain in place in LA County until we increase vaccination rates. Knowing that at indoor settings and crowded outdoor places where many may still be unvaccinated can result in easy virus transmission, LA County will be aligning with the state to continue masking requirements for everyone at large indoor and outdoor events, on public transportation, and at all retail and business establishments that are open to the public until June 15. Workplaces remain under Cal/OSHA masking and distancing requirements, which have not yet changed. And for unvaccinated people, masks are still required outdoors any time distancing cannot be maintained.
For the latest updates from the Department of Public Health, visit publichealth.lacounty.gov and follow @LAPublicHealth on Twitter and Facebook.
Updated mask guidance graphics can be found in our digital toolkit.