
There are still plenty of reasons people may choose to wear masks, health officials say, and for them to be required in limited situations. Officials had expressed concern that BA.2.86, or Pirola, might be able to more easily infect those who had received older vaccines or had caught the coronavirus before. “When deaths go down to a much lower level, that is a compelling argument that we’re in a new stage of this pandemic.”Ĭalifornia New COVID vaccine, due as early as next week, appears to work well against Pirola subvariant County, we’re still averaging about one, one and a half recorded new deaths a day,” Ferrer said. During the pandemic’s first winter, hospital morgues were so overwhelmed the National Guard was called in to help transport corpses.īut thanks to effective vaccines, the development of anti-COVID therapeutic drugs like Paxlovid and years of built-up community immunity from prior infections, the risk of dying from or becoming seriously ill with COVID-19 is now much lower - making more forceful interventions such as mask mandates unnecessary. Health officials say the sweeping actions mandated by government officials earlier in the pandemic were aimed at keeping hospitals from being so overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients that doctors would be forced to ration care - a fear that came close to reality before vaccines were widely available. The number could very well rise over time, since deaths are a lagging indicator of coronavirus spread, but the fact that it hasn’t yet so far is notable. County is recording an average of one death a day from COVID-19, a number that has remained stable despite the increase in coronavirus circulation. The Huntington Beach City Council voted to ban implementing COVID-19 vaccine and mask requirements in the city.įerrer noted that L.A.

California Despite uptick in infections, Huntington Beach moves to ban COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates
