LA recommends masks, again. Will other California counties follow as Delta variant spreads?

Los Angeles County shifted its mask wearing policies this week, recommending that all people regardless of coronavirus vaccination status wear masks indoors. The move is a response to the growing Delta variant, which has quickly spread across the state.

As of June 23, California reported 372 COVID-19 cases caused by the Delta variant in California, or about 14.5% of all new cases in the state.

That’s a sharp increase from May, when the variant only made up 4.7% of cases, according to data released by the California Department of Public Health.

About a third of those cases are from L.A. County, which reported 123 cases.

L.A. County’s Delta rate currently surpasses the national average; Delta accounts for 1 in 5 new cases across the country, but half of L.A.’s COVID-19 cases are from Delta, a variant which emerged in India but is now active in 80 countries and 41 U.S. states, according to the CDC.

So far, other counties say they aren’t following L.A.’s lead.

The chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday that masks are not necessary for fully vaccinated people.

“If you are vaccinated, you are safe from the variants that are circulating here in the United States,” CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday on “Today.”

California health guidelines allow for vaccinated people to not wear masks indoors with certain exceptions like in hospitals or on public transportation.

Sacramento County is following state’s guidelines and for the time being does not plan to issue a local rule, Health Officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye said.

Kasirye said she didn’t have an exact timeline, but said the county is anticipating a decision from the state will come soon. The concern in the meantime is areas of the county will the lowest percentage of fully vaccinated people because of the highly contagious nature of the Delta variant.

“The greatest risk, of course, is with those that are not vaccinated,” Kasirye said. “I know that enforcement of masking has been an issue from the beginning. We are dependent on people self reporting, if they are vaccinated or not in order to determine if they need to wear masks or not, especially in indoor settings.”

Pfizer and Moderna report vaccines are effective

Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been found to be highly effective against the Delta variant just like conventional strains.

Pfizer is 88% effective at two doses, and fully vaccinated individuals are 96% protected from hospitalization with the Delta variant. Moderna said on Tuesday that the vaccine was found in a lab study to be highly effective against variants.

Pfizer’s effectiveness drops down to 33% when it comes to individuals who have only received one dose.

That’s cause for concern in places like Stanislaus County, where almost 50,000 residents haven’t recieved their second dose.

Stanislaus has reported six Delta cases, according to county Health Services Agency spokesperson Kamlesh Kaur, but that number could be much higher because not all COVID-19 tests are analyzed for variant strains.

Kaur said that Stanislaus has been closely following data, but as of now has no plans to issue local orders beyond state guidelines.

Neighboring San Joaquin County has so far reported 15 Delta variant cases. The county also has a high number of partially vaccinated people, with 27,000 in the city of Stockton alone as of last week.

Delta variant easily transmissible

The Delta variant poses a threat because it’s 2.4 times more transmissible than the original coronavirus strain, according to Yolo County Public Health Officer Dr. Aimee Sisson.

Last week, 40% of the county’s cases detected by the UC Davis Genome Center were traced back to the Delta variant, far higher than the state’s average.

The Alpha variant, originally from the United Kingdom, accounts for more cases than Delta across the state, but Sisson said that those infected with Delta variant are twice as likely to end up hospitalized than those with the Alpha variant.

Sisson said that whether or not fully vaccinated people should wear masks is a “gray area” for the county. It has no plans to require masking indoors, and is instead waiting for the California Department of Public Health to weigh in.

For now, Sisson has been advising Yolo County residents to “err on the side of caution” by wearing masks indoors, especially for those 65 and older or immunocompromised.

In Sacramento County, there have been 67 cases identified as the Delta variant. But similar to Stanislaus County, those numbers don’t project the total number of Delta cases in the community, only the total of samples submitted for sequencing.

This story was originally published July 1, 2021 at 5:00 AM.