The eruption of the BA.5 variant of Covid-19 has led local officials to consider reinstating the county’s indoor mask mandate. Today, that revisit of the protocols was backed by Dr. Ashish Jha, President Biden’s Covid-19 coordinator, who was speaking to ABC’s “This Week”Talk show.
Los Angeles may bring back its universal indoor mask mandate on July 29 if the county continues in the Centers for Disease Control’s “high”Transmission threshold
“My view on this has been very clear, which is local jurisdictions, cities, counties, states should make decisions about mask mandates, because communities are different and their patterns of transmission are different,”Jha said.
“That said, CDC has very clear guidance on this as well through their COVID community levels. And the CDC recommendation is that when you’re in a high zone, that sort of orange zoneas L.A. County is, you know, people wearing masks indoors is really important, and it really will make a difference.”
Jha stated that the science behind taking precautions is clear.
“If you’re in a crowded indoor space, especially if it’s poorly ventilated, wearing a mask reduces your risk of infection and reduces your risk of spreading it to others. So we’ve got to continue to encourage people to do that.”
BA.5 is currently the most prevalent strain of coronavirus. It was reported by the World Health Organization as being behind 52% of coronavirus-related cases in late June. This is up from 37% in a single week. It is responsible for approximately 65% of the infections in the United States.
Even those who are vaccinated or have had prior protections against the disease can be susceptible to this new variant.