California’s statewide masking mandate now in effect through Jan. 15
California will require indoor universal masking across the state for a month, Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly announced on Monday.
The mandate will require everyone in California to wear a mask indoors, regardless of vaccination status, from December 15 until January 15.
Ghaly cited a 47% increase in COVID-19 cases in the state since Thanksgiving.
California will also require unvaccinated people attending an event with more than 1,000 attendees to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test less than 48 hours prior to the event, rather than the 72 hours that has become the standard.
State officials were unclear about how it would be enforced. Ghaly said enforcement would likely be stronger in some places than others, but he urged Californians to heed the warnings and wear masks.
“We know that there’s going to be people who don’t necessarily agree with this, who are tired, who aren’t going to mask,” Ghaly said. “We hope that those are few and far between, that most people see the purpose of doing this over the next month as something to protect them and their communities during a very tough time.”
Prior to this new announcement, Riverside County did not have an indoor mask order. The county followed the state guidelines in recommending wearing masks. This will change starting Wednesday.
Los Angeles and San Francisco counties also had a mask mandate already in place.
Palm Springs already had an indoor mask order in place and required proof of vaccination or negative test to get into indoor businesses.
Cathedral City's indoor mask mandate just ended on Friday after the city council decided to let it expire, reverting back to state guidelines. The order now means that the city will once again have indoor masking
California joins other states with similar indoor mask mandates, including Washington, Oregon, Illinois, New Mexico, Nevada, Hawaii and New York.
As of Dec. 13, there are 383,242 COVID cases including 5,502 deaths and 373,478 recoveries. On Monday, the county reported 1,240 new cases, 0 deaths, and 10 hospitalizations since Friday.
There are currently 292 COVID hospitalizations, including 72 patients in the ICU. This is the most since early Oct.
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