LA reinstates indoor masking for Covid vaccinated as public health officials scramble over Delta variant

The county of Los Angeles has reissued a recommendation for wearing masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status, as public health officials clash over the Delta variant and its mutations spreading from India.

While the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidance in May that vaccinated Americans no longer need masks indoors, the World Health Organisation says it’s more “urgent” than ever to wear masks to stop the spread of new variants.

Citing the Delta variant, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health issued updated guidance that “strongly recommends” indoor masking regardless of vaccination status. The recommendation is currently voluntary.

California’s 15 June reopening aligned with the CDC’s guidance allowing fully vaccinated people to forgo masks in public indoor spaces, with LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger among the chorus urging governor Gavin Newsom to life mask mandates across the state.

LA County public health officials said that despite people who are fully vaccinated appearing well protected from Delta variants, everyone should focus on maximum protection “until we better understand how and to who the Delta variant is spreading”.

There have been 123 people in LA County confirmed to be infected with the Delta variant, with 10 in fully vaccinated, three in partially vaccinated, and 100 in unvaccinated, according to data compiled by The Los Angeles Times. It is the third-most-common in California – making up 14.5 per cent of coronavirus cases in June, less than the average of 20 per cent across the US.

LA Country’s move comes as India is warning of a new "Delta plus" mutation emerging from the Ganges River variant.

The so-called Delta Plus, or Ay.01 mutation, contains characteristics of the original Delta variant (B.1.617.2) and also of the mutation known as K417N, which was discovered in the Beta variant from South Africa.

Delta Plus was first detected in India on 5 April but the mutation was not formally acknowledged until being publicly reported as K417N in a Public Health England bulletin on 11 June, when it identified 63 cases in Canada, Germany, Russia, Nepal, Switzerland, India, Poland, Portugal and Japan.

By 16 June that number grew to 197 cases with the most in the United States (83) and Britain (36), and new countries joining the list including Turkey.

Dr Bruce Aylward, senior advisor to the Director-General, told the Friday press conference that masks need to remain on fully vaccinated people to “play it safe”.

“Because you could end up as part of a transmission chain. You may not actually be fully protected. Sometimes the vaccines don’t work,” he said.

“I think the first message we want to be careful about is saying once you’re vaccinated you can just ahead and do whatever. Yes, you can reduce some measures and different countries have different recommendations in that regard but there is still the need for caution.”