Pasadena To Reinstate Mask Mandate Amid COVID-19 Surge

Pasadena CA

20 July, 2021

12:02 AM

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PASADENA, CA — The Pasadena Public Health Department will reinstate its indoor mask mandate of city residents and visitors as cases of COVID-19 continue to rise across Los Angeles County. Masks must be worn indoors in any public setting or business, regardless of a person's vaccination status, the city announced Monday night on Twitter. "The order will be finalized and posted this week," the city tweeted. "While Pasadena's case rates were lower than LA County's last week, weekend case rates continued to climb." The city's coronavirus case rate has met the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's threshold for what's considered "substantial transmission," Pasadena officials said. [1/3] Due to significant increase in case rates over the past 3 weeks, Pasadena Public Health Dept. Director and Health Officer Dr. Ying-Ying Goh will issue a Health Officer Order requiring face masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status, in public settings and businesses.— City of Pasadena (@PasadenaGov) July 20, 2021 The city's move follows Los Angeles County reinstating its mask mandate this past weekend after the county began to record 101 coronavirus cases for every 100,000 residents a week. The spike in cases both in the county and Pasadena has been spurred by a combination of unvaccinated individuals and the highly transmissible delta variant. Almost 4 million Los Angeles County residents have yet to be vaccinated against COVID-19, including 1.3 million children who are too young to receive a shot. Pasadena recorded its first cases of the delta variant last week after six residents from different households contracted the virus. The six live in homes with a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated people, city spokesperson Lisa Derderian said. The city recorded its first COVID-19 related death earlier this month since April when a 65-year-old unvaccinated man died from the virus. "Now is the time for anyone who is not yet vaccinated to get fully vaccinated. Help connect friends and family who are not yet vaccinated to a vaccine opportunity as soon as possible," Pasadena Public Health Department Director Ying-Ying Goh previously said in a statement. "Current vaccines are effective in protecting against the Delta variant that spreads much more easily than prior variants and is more likely to cause serious disease."