NY, LA Among Cities Joining Rural Areas in Mask Zone

(Bloomberg) -- It’s not just Arkansas and Louisiana, where the delta variant has been raging, that are affected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new recommendation for vaccinated people to mask indoors in some parts of the country. Most major U.S. urban areas also fall under the scope of the advisory.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told Americans Tuesday to consult the agency’s county-level map of transmission rates to determine whether they need to be masking indoors if they have already been inoculated against Covid-19. In locations with “high” or “substantial” transmission rates, it’s best if people mask indoors regardless of vaccination status, she said.

Read more about the CDC’s revised mask recommendations

Those counties include all five of New York City’s boroughs, plus the counties that encompass Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Dallas, Boston and Phoenix. The entire states of Arkansas, Florida and Louisiana are covered, along with most of Missouri, Mississippi, and Alabama. Los Angeles County, the nation’s largest, this month already reinstated masking in indoor settings.

Only a handful of the nation’s top cities have a low enough risk to go mask-free under the CDC’s guidance, including Chicago and Philadelphia. The county-level data is a sharp reminder that the Biden administration’s vaccination campaign is facing resistance not just from Republican-leaning states -- urban populations, including Black and Hispanic communities in some areas, are also lagging behind in many places.

Read More: White House Orders Staff to Again Wear Masks Amid New Danger

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti joined New York City, announcing on Tuesday that city employees will need to show vaccination certificates or submit a weekly negative Covid test as part of their jobs. Garcetti added that he’ll push for mandatory vaccinations for all employees once the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gives its full approval for Covid-19 vaccines now authorized for emergency use.

“The fourth wave is here, and the choice for Angelenos couldn’t be clearer -- get vaccinated or get Covid-19,” Garcetti said in an emailed statement.

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