A young person wearing a mask is waiting in line at a testing site on the Martin Luther King Jr. medical campus in Los Angeles.
The man is named "Marcio Josenchez."
Due to the rise in COVID-19 cases caused by the fast-spreading omicron variant, California is extending its indoor mask mandate until at least February 15.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services told The Associated Press that they are concerned about hospitals. Some facilities are going to be strapped.
The indoor mask mandate was re-instated on Dec. 15 last year and was due to end on Jan. 15.
The state requires everyone to wear a mask in all indoor spaces, regardless of vaccine status.
The new statewide order affects the counties that don't have their own indoor mandates.
We will re-examine the condition across California, our communities and our health-care delivery settings to make sure that we are taking the latest information into account to determine if there would be another extension or if we are prepared to lift that requirement across
The California Health Department said that the statewide seven-day average case rate has increased by more than sixfold.
While the percentage of Californians who have been fully vaccined and boosted continues to increase, we still have areas of the state where vaccine coverage is low, putting individuals and communities at greater risk for COVID-19, the department said in a statement.
"Implementing a universal masking requirement has proven to decrease the rate of infections but is able to slow community transmission," the department said.
More than 65 million COVID vaccines have been given to those eligible.
Almost 80% of Californians have been given at least one dose of the vaccine, with close to 144,000 people a day receiving it, according to health officials.
