Guests enjoy cocktails inside the Tiki-Ti Bar in Los Angeles, California on July 7, 2021.
Damian Dovarganes | AP
Los Angeles County public health officials will begin requiring COVID-19 vaccination tests for employers and workers at indoor bars, wineries, breweries and nightclubs next month.
The new initiative in the country’s most populous county begins Oct. 7, with testing for at least one dose of vaccine needed. On Nov. 4, the full vaccination test will be mandatory, according to the county public health department. Health officials recommend the same precautions for indoor restaurants, but have not opted to require proof of vaccination.
New restrictions are approaching before the holiday season, which last year sparked a massive increase in Los Angeles. More than 25,000 people have died of the virus across the county and the toll continues to rise amid the most contagious delta variant.
“This is a reasonable way forward that will position us to be able to better break the cycle of rises,” Barbara Ferrer, the county’s director of public health, told the Board of Supervisors during a meeting Wednesday.
The county will also require a full vaccination test or a negative COVID test within 72 hours for attendees and workers at outdoor events with at least 10,000 people, including theme parks. This condition begins on October 7, about a month after the start of the football season.
The same requirement already exists for events covered by 1,000 people or more.
LA County reinstated its inner mask mandate, regardless of vaccination status, on July 17, just one month after Gov. Gavin Newsom declared California “reopened.”
Newsom, which survived a withdrawal election this week, said Wednesday that while 82% of people in California 12 years of age or older have received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine, more than state residents they need to shoot them.
“You want our economy to hum again in this country and this state, you want to keep us operating sustainably at full capacity in all forms or forms, you need to vaccinate more people,” he said.
Newsom said that while he supports the LA county movement, he does not plan to follow the same for the entire state.
“We are pleased with where the state is today,” he added.