Live updates: follow the latest news on Covid-19 variant Omicron
California is bringing back a rule requiring people to wear masks indoors, a move aimed at containing the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus as people gather with family and friends during the holidays.
Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration announced the new mandate will start on Wednesday and last until January 15. The order comes as the per capita rate of new coronavirus cases in California jumped 47 per cent in the past two weeks.
“We know people are tired and hungry for normality. Frankly, I am too,” California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr Mark Ghaly said this week. “That said, this is a critical time where we have a tool that we know has worked and can work.”
California lifted its statewide mask mandate on June 15 for people who were vaccinated, a date Mr Newsom heralded as the state's grand reopening. But since then, county governments covering about half of the state's population have imposed their own indoor mask mandates as case rates surged due to new variants.
The new mask mandate will cover everyone else, but state officials on Monday were unclear about how it would be enforced.
Mr Newsom has issued lots of other coronavirus mandates, including requiring state employees, healthcare workers and, soon, public school pupils and teachers to be vaccinated.
California joins other states with similar indoor mask mandates, including Washington, Oregon, Illinois, New Mexico, Nevada, Hawaii and New York.
State officials are afraid of a repeat of last winter, when the state averaged more than 100 cases per 100,000 people during a monster winter surge of the virus when about 20,000 people died during an eight-week period.
But that surge was before vaccines were available. Today, more than 70 per cent of California's residents who are eligible have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. Even with the recent increase in cases, the state is averaging a little more than 14 cases per day per 100,000 people.
Even so, Dr Ghaly said hospitals in several counties with low vaccination rates are still struggling with lots of patients, including parts of Southern California in Riverside, San Bernardino, Mono and Inyo counties. Dr Ghaly said coronavirus hospital admissions often increase in the weeks following a jump in new cases.
California is also tightening existing testing requirements by ordering unvaccinated people attending indoor events of 1,000 people or more to have a negative test within one or two days, depending on the type of test. The state also is recommending travellers who visit or return to California to be tested within five days of their arrival.
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Children walk through the settlement of Vlakfontein outside Johannesburg in South Africa. Although children under 12 are not taking part in the country's Covid-19 vaccination campaign, cases in young children are on the rise since the discovery of the Omicron variant. AP -
People wearing face masks to protect against Covid-19 cross the Concorde square in Paris. The World Health Organisation says early evidence suggests the omicron variant may be spreading faster than the highly transmissible delta variant, but brings with it less severe coronavirus disease. AP -
President Joe Biden delivers remarks in the state dinning room at the White House in Washington. The US president and the vice president held a meeting with members of the White House Covid-19 Response Team on the latest developments related to the Omicron variant. EPA -
Dr Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden, attends a Covid-19 meeting at the White House. EPA -
People wait in line to get tested for Covid-19 in Times Square, New York. AFP -
The Omicron variant of Covid-19 has been detected in at least 19 US states. Health officials are urging Americans to get vaccinated and receive their booster shots. AFP -
Leonardo Velasco, 4, reacts as he receives a dose of the Sinopharm vaccine in Caracas, Venezuela, Reuters -
People wear face masks as they ride a bus after the first case of the Omicron variant was detected in Pakistan. The case was reported in a private hospital in Karachi by a patient with a history of international travel. EPA -
A health care worker prepares a dose of the Pfizer vaccine in Johannesburg, South Africa. Reuters -
A medical worker holds a sign for visitors to prepare for coronavirus tests at a temporary screening clinic in Seoul, South Korea. AP -
A child waits to receive a dose of the Sinofarm vaccine in La Paz, after Bolivian President Luis Arce authorised the vaccination of children between five and 11 years old. AFP -
Ice skaters take a selfie on the ice rink at the Natural History Museum in central London. AFP -
A health professional points to a Christmas tree made with Covid-19 and flu vaccine vials at the Public Health Basic Unit 'Ernani Agricola' in the Lapa neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. AFP -
Skaters, most wearing face masks to combat the spread of coronavirus, skate on the ice rink at the Natural History Museum in London. AFP -
A medical worker prepares a Moderna vaccine on the first day of the re-opening of a Covid-19 vaccination centre in Merignac, on the outskirts of Bordeaux, France. AFP
