California’s indoor mask mandate has been extended one month amid surging cases of the Omicron variant.
Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly announced the mandate will go through February 15, on Wednesday.
The mandate went into effect on December 15, 2021 and was set to expire January 15, 2022. The mandate requires masks be worn in all indoor public settings, regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status.
“Omicron is here,” Ghaly said in a briefing on Wednesday. “We can’t abandon the tools that we’ve used to achieve our collective success throughout this pandemic.”
The mandate’s end date of February 15 will be reevaluated based on conditions across the state hospitalization rates as the date is closer.
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