L.A. County dodges face-mask mandate as community transmission rates stabilize, and U.S. government orders 66 million doses of Moderna’s pending booster

Los Angeles County has dropped a plan for a universal indoor face-mask mandate as COVID cases and hospitalizations have stabilized, with community transmission expected to fall to “medium” from “high” in the coming weeks.

Health Director Barbara Ferrer had said two weeks ago that the U.S.’s most populous county could again require face coverings if trends in hospital admissions continued, under criteria set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as the Associated Press reported.

Face masks have become a topic occupying the minds of health experts, educators and local political leaders as students prepare to go back to school at a time when cases are being driven higher by the highly infectious BA.5 omicron subvariant.