LA’s largest hospital only treating 5 Covid patients as county weighs new mask mandates

Fox News' Bill Melugin wrote on Twitter, "NEW: One of LA County’s largest hospitals, @LACUSCMedCenter, announces they have only 5 patients being treated *for* COVID & none are severe. @lapublichealth will announce decision on a new mask mandate today, & their chief of comms @Morrow_Brett has gone private on Twitter."

According to Fox News, the LAC+USC Medical Center's Covid numbers are up from three patients being treated last week.

The LA County Department of Public Health announced on July 14 that they were likely going to reimpose mask mandates for indoor spaces starting Friday, July 29 because LA County had reached a "high" level of COVID-19 infections, despite the death rate remaining low. LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer told reporters during a briefing Thursday, "we have a ton of transmission right now" and endorsed the measure.

On July 25, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Kathryn Barger, announced that she will oppose any mask mandates that LA's Public Health Department plans to reinstate.

She was followed by the Beverly Hills City Council who voted on Monday not to enforce the rule, were it to be implemented.

Beverly Hills Mayor Lili Bosse said she and her colleagues felt they must lead the way and "support the power of choice." Bosse continued, "This is a united City Council and community that cares about health. We are not where we were in 2020, and now we need to move forward as a community and be part of the solution."

Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl supports the mask mandate and on Tuesday said anti-maskers are "snowflake weepies" during a virtual Board of Supervisors meeting with the county's public health director Ferrer.

"I don't hear them writing me about shoes," Kuehl said, "which are actually more oppressive to your feet than wearing a mask on your face but we do that really for health."