California health officials will extend an indoor mask mandate at public places for another month as the omicron variant has led to concerns about strains on the hospital system.
Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s top health official, said the mandate would be extended through Feb. 15. The original one-month mandate had been set to be reevaluated on Jan. 15. Some counties, including Yolo and Sacramento, already had local indoor mask mandates in place.
“Omicron is here and it’s here now,” Ghaly said Wednesday on a conference call with reporters.
Ghaly urged people to get vaccinated or boosted and to wear better fitting masks “with a good seal,” saying that omicron was much more transmissible than prior variants.
“Masks that maybe were really helpful in the beginning are not as helpful today,” he said.
Ghaly said that at this time last year hospitalizations were beginning to peak with 53,000 total hospitalizations, including 8,000 with COVID. As of Wednesday morning, there were close to 51,000 total people at hospitals, he said.
Ghaly said the state was trying to determine how many people are hospitalized because of COVID-19 versus those who are there for another condition but tested positive.
Ghaly said that there have been more pediatric patients hospitalized over the last few days than even at the peak of last winter’s surge.
But he said, “a lot of people are not being admitted to the ICU” and many had other underlying conditions.
He called for people to avoid going to emergency rooms for COVID-19 testing and instead visit community testing sites.
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