LA County masking could last through April, public health director says
Dr. Barbara Ferrer said even though the county's COVID metrics are improving, there are still too many people catching the virus.
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- California health officials may be easing the state's mask mandate next week, but Los Angeles County health officials plan to keep the mask restrictions in place for at least a few more weeks and possibly through the end of April.
L.A County Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer briefed the county board of supervisors Tuesday and said California's decision to drop certain masking requirements on Feb. 15 was based on an arbitrary date set last year.
Ferrer told the supervisors that even though the county's COVID-19 metrics are improving, there are still too many people catching the virus for officials to drop masking rules.
"We should not be lifting the masking mandate when we are reporting thousands and thousands of new cases every day," Ferrer explained. "That doesn't make sense to us here at public health."
County public health department statistics show for the week ending Feb. 7, the 7-day average of daily hospital admissions declined by 26% from the week before.
On Tuesday there were 2,702 patients hospitalized with COVID.
Los Angeles County Public Health will consider dropping some mask requirements when COVID daily hospitalizations drop below 2,500 for seven consecutive days.
Other Southern California counties are planning to follow the state's lead and ease masking restrictions next week.
L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger told Ferrer the county needs to stay in alignment with the state to keep consistency and earn credibility with residents.
"I cannot support the public health recommendations to carve out this county until late spring," Barger said during the Board's meeting on Tuesday afternoon. "Once again, we are being the most restrictive and quite frankly, I don't think the science can back up that."
Meanwhile, the supervisors moved forward Tuesday with a plan to do what Sheriff Alex Villanueva has been ignoring: making sure his employees follow the county's COVID vaccine mandates.
The board approved plans to give the county's director of personnel the authority to discipline and even terminate county employees who are not fully vaccinated or determined to be exempt from getting the shots.
Per the motion, as of Feb. 1, more than 81% of all L.A. County employees have been fully vaccinated.
But within the Sheriff's Department, that number is less than 60%.
County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl said that is why nearly 74% of all the COVID-related workers comp claims filed by L.A. County employees were filed by Sheriff's Department employees. Villanueva said if the county moves forward and starts firing employees who do not meet the vaccination standards, it could lead to the dismissal of 18,000 employees, 4,000 of which could be deputies.
City News Service, Inc. contributed to this report
