LOS ANGELES — A rapid and sustained increase in COVID-19 cases in the nation’s largest county requires restoring an indoor mask mandate even when people are vaccinated, Los Anꦗgeles County’s public health officer said Thursday.
Dr. Muntu Davis said at a virtual press conference that a public health order requiring masks iജndoors will go into effect Saturday.
“This is an all-hands-on-deck moment,” he said.
Davis didn’t fully de🤡tail what he said would be some exceptions but said for example, people could still go out to eat and take off their masks only while eating and drinking.
The𝐆 county has been recording more than 1,000 new case♌s each day for a week, and there is now “substantial community transmission,” Davis said.
Meanwhile, in Northern California, at least 59 residents at a homeless shelter have tested positive for the virus💦, half of whom were vaccinated, health officials said.
Of those infected at the shelteꦑr in Santa Rosa, 28 were fully vaccinated, Dr. Sundari Mase, Sonoma County’s health officer, s♌aid Wednesday. Officials were reviewing an additional 26 possible positive cases.
Of the 59 people with confirmed infections at Samuel L. Jones Hall, nine were hospitalized, including six who were fully vaccinated and had “multiple, significant” underlying health conditions, including diabetes and pulmon🦄ary disease, health officia🐲ls said. Four have since been discharged, and five remain hospitalized.
Of𓆏ficials said that fewer than half of the 153 residents had received at least partial vaccination an𓂃d they do not know whether the outbreak started with a vaccinated or unvaccinated resident.
“We know congregate settings are at much higher risk,” Mase said. “We also know there is a very high proportion of unvaccinated individualඣs that were in this sett𒅌ing.”
Most of the 69 vaccinated residents had received the single-shot Johnson & Johnson dose but Mase sꦍaid it was ওhard to determine whether that was a factor in the outbreak.
Vaccines decrease the severity of the illness, reduce hospitalizations and decrease the risk of death. Clinical trials showed that a single dose of the J&J vaccine was 72% effective against moderate to severe COVID-19 in the Un♛ited States, compared to 95% for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. A Food and Drug Adm🐷inistration analysis cautioned that it’s not clear how well the vaccines work against each variant.
The outbreak is only the second time the coronavirus has been detected at Sam Jones. There was a smaller cluster of ⛄cases in January during the peak of the p🎃andemic, said Jennielynn Holmes, head of homelessness services at Catholic Charities in Santa Rosa, which manages the shelter.
Th🐷e shelter first became aware of the most recent outbreak on Jul🌄y 2, when it reported 20 positive cases.
“Something is different. T♚his is different than what we’ve see💮n the entire pandemic,” Holmes said.
Holmes and city officials had said last week the outbreak was caused by the delta variant, which is far more♚ contagious than the original strain of the virus. County officials said they had not confirmed that and need more time to review the infections.
Claris𒅌sa Millarker, a Sam Jones resident since March, said that prior to the outbreak, shelter staff had been lax in enforcing health protocols, particularly masking.
“I feel like it’s entirely likely that I’m going to turn up infected,” Millarker,🗹 who is vaccinated, told of Santa Rosa.
Millarker said staff have since ramped up sanitation, been more vigilant about mas👍ks and starไted testing every few days. Still, there is confusion and anger over how the situation was handled by shelter operators, she said.
“People are upset, and they’re right to be,” she s♒aid🐻.