San Diego County authorities do not plan to require proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter restaurants, shopping malls and other closed places, local authorities announced Wednesday.
The news comes a week after the Los Angeles city council voted 11-2 in favor of
request proof of complete vaccination in closed premises throughout the city. That mandate takes effect in November. But Nathan Fletcher, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, says the county is not likely to follow suit.
“Our vaccination rates are among the highest in the country and our COVID cases are clearly declining,” Fletcher said in a statement. “At this time, San Diego County has no plans to impose vaccines on local businesses.”
Nor does it appear that the state plans to issue any vaccination mandates. In response to a Union-Tribune query, the California Department of Public Health said individual counties may take pandemic precautions that are stricter than the state’s stance, adding that if there are changes to state policy, the agency will announce them publicly.
The city of San Diego also has no plans to mandate indoor vaccination, according to Courtney Pittam, press secretary for Mayor Todd Gloria, unless the county changes its guidelines.
It is not the first time that San Diego and Los Angeles have taken different approaches to controlling the spread of the coronavirus.
In July, Los Angeles County reinstated the requirement to wear face masks indoors in an attempt to stem the rise in cases and hospitalizations caused by the fast-spreading variant of the delta virus.
Weeks later, local authorities asked San Diegans to put on the mask as well, whether or not they were vaccinated, following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the local ad was simply a recommendation, not a mandate.
However, infections and hospitalizations have steadily declined in San Diego. On July 23, the county reported about 1,200 new cases, the highest single-day total since February. Lately, it is more common for the region to register between 400 and 600 daily cases, and the percent of positive tests has also decreased.
One possible reason for this improvement in the absence of a mask mandate is that San Diego has a higher vaccination rate than Los Angeles. About 70 percent of Angelenos ages 12 and older are fully vaccinated, according to the county’s public health department, compared with just 80 percent of San Diegans age 12 and older.
It is clear that those who are not fully vaccinated are the most affected by the pandemic.
County figures released last week showed that residents who were not fully vaccinated accounted for 80 percent of infections, 97 percent of hospitalizations, and 83 percent of deaths from COVID-19 between early September and beginning of October.
–
