Indoor Masking for Film and TV Production to Resume as Los Angeles Hits COVID ‘Escalation Trigger’

With COVID cases in Los Angeles County this week hitting the predetermined “escalation trigger” set forth in Hollywood’s return-to-work agreement, indoor masking and other safety protocols are being reinstated.

Los Angeles County Public Health Officer Barbara Ferrer announced on Thursday that cases in the county are up 17% over last week, which breached the trigger point of eight or more new weekly COVID hospital admissions per 100,000 people over a seven-day interval, which is slightly lower rate than the one used by the CDC.

“Now that we’ve hit that threshold, they have gone back to what they had before, which is required masking indoors,” Ferrer said, noting that the TV and film industry has aligned their safety protocols with hospitals in the county.

She praised unions and producers for their response so far during the pandemic. “This industry has worked closely with their labor partners to institute COVID safety measures that create safety for all workers while being able to continue the important work. We do applaud them along with the many other businesses that are taking advantage of the many tools that are available to keep employees and customers safe.”

Ferrer also shared several charts during this week’s media briefing, which show “a concerning increase” in reported cases. She attributed the increase in cases to “higher rate of transmission that’s associated with the newly high, highly infectious COVID variants and also the decline in routine testing at schools.” The seven-day average of daily hospital admissions is now 109 per day, up from 84 last week and 78% higher than a month ago.

The Hollywood industry return-to-work agreement, which laid out safety protocols, is set to expire July 15.

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