July 23, 2021- 8:23 p.m.
St. Louis County in Missouri is mandating face masks for everyone over the age of 5 when indoors regardless of vaccination status amid the spread of the delta variant, officials announced Friday.
St. Louis County reported 241 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bumping the 7-day average up to 212, which is slightly higher than the level that it was at in mid-April. The county’s average test positivity rate has risen to 9.4% over the past week, the highest it has been since late January.
Masks are also “strongly encouraged” for groups when outdoors.
Statewide, cases are also reaching levels not seen since January as Missouri reported 2,865 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, according to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch analysis.
Dr. Faisal Khan, acting director of the St. Louis County Department of Public Health, said that vaccines are the “best way to stop the fast-spreading Delta variant of COVID-19.”
“We are relentlessly committed to making vaccinations more accessible and convenient,” Dr. Khan said Friday. “In the meantime, we need everyone, vaccinated or not, to wear masks in crowded indoor settings.”
Just over half, 50.2%, of adults in Missouri are fully vaccinated, while 57.5% have received at least one dose of a vaccine.
“If you’re in an area that has a high case rate and low rates of vaccination where Delta cases are rising, you should certainly be wearing a mask if you are unvaccinated,” Dr. Walensky said at the White House Thursday. “If you are vaccinated, you get exceptional protection from the vaccines. But you have the opportunity to make the personal choice to add extra layers of protection if you so choose.”
Local officials in other parts of the country with surging cases have already reinstated mask mandates.
