Acceptance and Anger as Los Angeles Mandates Masks Again

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California Today

Monday: As Los Angeles County’s indoor disguise request took effect, determination was anxious acceptance and stubborn refusal, mild grumbling and blurted-out outrage.

July 19, 2021

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A motion   astatine  a Lululemon covering  store   telling customers that masks are required successful  Santa Monica.
Credit...Jenna Schoenefeld for The New York Times

Good morning.

At the Hollywood Bowl connected Sunday, wherever the jazz instrumentalist Kamasi Washington was headlining, immoderate successful the assemblage were wearing masks, adjacent though they were not required to bash so.

With Covid-19 cases connected the uptick again, Los Angeles County connected Sunday became the archetypal large region successful the nation to revert to requiring masks indoors, careless of vaccination status. Those who were masked astatine the Hollywood Bowl were being other cautious — the caller mandate did not use astatine outdoor concerts oregon successful immoderate different outdoor spaces.

Thirty miles away, the country was acold antithetic astatine a sports barroom successful Santa Clarita, successful northwestern Los Angeles County. At 1 infinitesimal connected Sunday afternoon, not a psyche could beryllium seen wearing a disguise inside, worker and patron alike. Two men drinking brew astatine an outdoor array said they were not adjacent alert the rules had changed.

One county. Two of a multitude of reactions.

The county, America’s astir populous, is simply a sprawling, freeway-linked postulation of 88 cities and 10,039,107 residents. It is ultrawealthy and ultra-poor, mega-urban and mega-suburban.

In parts of wide Los Angeles, the caller requirements for masks were applauded arsenic a omniscient people of action. In parts of blimpish Los Angeles, the rules were a nuisance that immoderate ignored, illustrating the occupation for wellness officials successful rolling backmost a portion of the state’s celebratory reopening successful a region wherever a benignant of sun-kissed cacophony is simply a mode of life.

On Sunday greeting successful Beverly Hills, determination were masks connected galore faces arsenic radical streamed into cafes, patisseries and brunch spots. To some, enforcement was lax.

“I noticed a fewer radical that were not wearing masks,” Maritza Alvarado said arsenic she sat extracurricular Urth Caffé with her niece, some of whom said they were vaccinated, and who were sipping pinkish banana strawberry smoothies. “The radical who person not been vaccinated are preventing america from surviving our lives.”

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Credit...Morgan Lieberman for The New York Times

As different counties statewide are present recommending mask-wearing indoors and debating whether to travel the pb of Los Angeles County officials by making the proposal mandatory, the varying reactions to the mandate could beryllium a motion of things to travel successful parts of California.

At a hardware store successful Agoura Hills adjacent the Ventura County line, 3 customers entering separately successful bare faces were offered disposable masks by workers successful the span of 20 minutes. One of the 3 — a bearded seasoned buying a azygous airy bulb — enactment the disguise on, but helium was not blessed astir it.

“The emperor wants america to person masks connected again,” the antheral said.

It was an evident notation to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is facing a recall predetermination successful September — and who had thing to bash with the Los Angeles County mandate. The determination was a section one, made by the leaders of the county’s Department of Public Health, retired of interest for the highly transmissible Delta variant, which has led to a crisp emergence successful coronavirus cases successful caller days. California gives counties the enactment to enforce tighter restrictions locally than the authorities requires.

As the man’s remark illustrated, immoderate successful the region are anxious to blasted Newsom, and the jumble of shifting recommendations and requirements astatine the local, authorities and national level has made it casual to bash so. Confusion and choler were evident connected Sunday implicit the mandate, arsenic good arsenic implicit the disagreement between the vaccinated and unvaccinated.

Carol Hopkins, a server astatine the Original Saugus Cafe successful Santa Clarita, waited connected tables of patrons escaping the 100-degree vigor outside.

Hopkins, who is vaccinated and wore a achromatic mask, said it was unfair that others successful Santa Clarita — 1 of the astir blimpish cities successful Los Angeles County — had refused to get vaccinated, making beingness much hard for hospitality workers similar herself.

“Why,” she said, “do I request to deterioration a damn mask?”

Michelle O’Donnell contributed reporting.


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Credit...Cindy Yamanaka/The Orange County Register, via Associated Press

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