LA County urged people to start masking up indoors again - even if they're fully vaccinated - as Delta cases surge

• California lifted its mask mandate two weeks ago, but LA County wants people to wear them again.
• It urged even fully vaccinated people to wear them indoors, citing the spread of the Delta variant.
• Top US health experts have warned about the spread of the Delta variant, which is highly infectious.

Los Angeles County is urging people, including those who are fully vaccinated, to start wearing masks indoors again as the Delta coronavirus variant circulates.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said in a Monday statement that it "strongly recommends everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks indoors in public places as a precautionary measure," citing the more-infectious variant.

The Delta variant has been found to be able to evade the protection of COVID-19 vaccines, though those who are fully vaccinated tend to have milder cases. Recent data from the UK found that some vaccinated people had died from the Delta variant, but there are fewer of them and they were almost all over the age of 50.

The LA County statement said that "in the week ending June 12, Delta variants comprised of nearly half of all variants sequenced in Los Angeles County."

It noted that fully vaccinated people seem to have a high level of protection against Delta, but said: "Until we better understand how and to who the Delta variant is spreading, everyone should focus on maximum protection with minimum interruption to routine as all businesses operate without other restrictions, like physical distancing and capacity limits."

Read the full statement here:

California lifted its mandatory mask mandate on June 15.

Top health experts have warned of the spread of the Delta variant in the US. Last week Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown School of Public Health, said the country has not vaccinated enough people to stop a spike in Delta cases.