California Indoor Mask Mandate Returns Today

(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)...California is bringing back a regulations requiring people to wear masks indoors, a move aimed at containing the new Omicron Variant as people gather with family and friends during the Christmas holidays...Judging by the first two years of the Pandemic, many folks here in Yucaipa, Calimesa, and Mentone won't be happy... 

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration announced the new mandate will start today and last until at least Jan. 15...The order comes as the per capita rate of new coronavirus cases in California has jumped 47% in the past two weeks...

“We know people are tired and hungry for normalcy. Frankly, I am too,” California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said Monday... “That said, this is a critical time where we have a tool that we know has worked and can work...”

The State lifted its statewide mask mandate on June 15 for people who were vaccinated, But since then, counties covering about half of the state’s population have imposed their own indoor mask mandates as case rates surged with new variants, Including LA County and San Francisco...