Published
Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 19:29
- The order goes into effect at 11:59 PM on Saturday night.
Los Angeles county will reimpose a mask mandate—regardless of vaccination status—on Saturday night.
The order will go into effect at 11:59 PM on Saturday night and comes just over a month after most regulations on gatherings and social distancing were relaxed on June 15th. (For a look at how reopening has impacted the city's lively club and underground culture, check out our feature, The Return Of Events: Los Angeles.)
The announcement follows six straight days where the county reported 1,000 new Covid-19 cases, with hospitalizations jumping to 400 from 275. While infections and serious illness are a fraction of their fall and winter peak in Los Angeles county, daily Covid-19 cases are six times what they were on June 15th, with community transmission moving from "low" to "moderate."
On January 5th, 2021, LA county reached a high of 80 hospitalizations per 100,000 residents. The low was 2.1 per 100,000 in mid-June, which has doubled to about 4.5 presently. (Source: Los Angeles Times.) Despite the wide availability of vaccines in LA county, only about 60 percent of the population has acquired one dose of the vaccine, with about 52 percent fully vaccinated.
RA spoke with several Los Angeles promoters, most of whom were unsure how the new mask mandates would affect them. We spoke to Heidi Lawden, DJ, party promoter (with Surround and Dusk) and artist manager for DJ Harvey, who is slated to play a large outdoor event in LA on July 31st.
"The mask thing is really mixed for me. Personally anything I've done indoors in public I've kept a mask on. At our events we've required either proof of vaccine or a negative test within 72 hours for those that cannot or don't want to vaccine," she told RA. Lawden encouraged fellow promoters to adopt similar policies requiring proof of vaccine or negative tests at the door. "I personally stood on the door and helped two people schedule a test at Staples Center [the nearest free testing site]. They tested negative and were back inside and on the dance floor within the hour. I think safety of guests, as well as their family and friends after they return home, is of the upmost importance."
Photo credit: @nightmovesme