SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California will be reinstating a month-long indoor mask mandate starting Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly announced Monday.
The mandate will last from Dec. 15, 2021 to Jan. 15., 2022. California residents, regardless of vaccination status, will be required to wear a mask in all indoor, public settings.
Ghaly said this is in response to a 47% increase in coronavirus cases since Thanksgiving.
"This will cover about 50% of the state's population that currently lives in counties that do not have a similar mandate. In many parts of the state, we do have those mandates county by county," Ghaly said.
Sacramento County, Yolo County and Stanislaus County already had indoor mask mandates. Placer County did not implement an indoor mask mandate in July like other nearby counties.
More information about the indoor mask mandate can be found at the California Department of Public Health website.
OTHER CORONAVIRUS NEWS
NBA Postpones Games
The NBA has postponed the Chicago Bulls’ next two games, with 10 of the team’s players in the league’s health and safety protocols.
The Bulls were scheduled to host the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday and visit the Toronto Raptors on Thursday. No makeup dates were announced.
The Bulls’ next game is now scheduled for Sunday against the Los Angeles Lakers at home.
The team confirmed that backup forward Alize Johnson became the 10th player to enter the protocols, joining a list that includes Zach LaVine and DeMar Derozan. That left the Bulls with eight available players, the league minimum to field a team.
One Year of Vaccines
The first full year of the biggest vaccination drive in American history has saved many lives but has left many behind.
The COVID-19 vaccines have proven incredibly safe and wildly effective, and many hoped they would bring an end to the crisis. But a year later, too many Americans remain unvaccinated and too many are dying.
The vaccines’ first year has been rocky with the disappointment of breakthrough infections, the political strife over mandates and, now, worries about whether the mutant omicron will evade protection.
Yet many experts say history will record COVID-19 vaccines as an extraordinary achievement that prevented tens of thousands of deaths.
