Dear Friend —

Given the recent changes in our health orders, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on how far we’ve come and update you on the city's current orders. Over the past two years, our community's response to this historic crisis caused by COVID-19 has been nothing short of heroic. Today, 88% of adults and over 99% of seniors in Long Beach have been vaccinated — and our efforts have been lauded as a model for the rest of the country. Long Beach was the first city in California to vaccinate public school teachers and educators, and we built on this success by moving quickly to vaccinate food and dock workers early last year.

Vaccines and boosters are continuing to prevent hospitalization and serious illness and have saved countless lives in our community. Thanks to our robust vaccination program and the recent decline in COVID-19 cases, over the past week, Long Beach has joined the State of California and County of Los Angeles to take steps reducing the scope of our indoor mask mandate. As we are able to make these updates to our pandemic response, I especially want to thank the incredible healthcare workers and Health Department staff who have continued to protect our community throughout the omicron surge.

Some key changes for residents include:

• People who are fully vaccinated are encouraged to, but no longer required to wear masks in most indoor settings,
• Unvaccinated and partially vaccinated people must continue to wear masks in indoor public settings and businesses,
  • Examples include, but are not limited to, retail, restaurants, theaters, family entertainment centers, meetings, and state and local government offices serving the public.
• Regardless of vaccination status, everyone must continue to wear face masks in certain indoor settings,
  • These include public transit, emergency shelters and cooling/heating centers, healthcare settings, correctional facilities and detention centers, homeless shelters, long-term care settings and adult and senior care facilities.
• And lastly, the Long Beach Unified School District has announced plans to make masking strongly recommended, but not required, while indoors beginning on March 12 — in line with state guidelines.

You can read our updated health order with revised masking guidance here and view the school district's announcement here. As a reminder, masks are still encouraged but not required for vaccinated individuals in many places. Please be respectful and follow the rules that have been put in place at the locations that you visit. Both vaccines and masks have been important tools that have allowed us to reduce virus transmission and keep people safe.

I'm thankful the omicron variant surge of COVID-19 cases in Long Beach has declined enough to allow us to take these positive steps. Our Health Department will continue working with the State and County to monitor outbreaks and ensure Long Beach is prepared and ready to respond to potential variants and surges in the future.

Thank you and stay safe,

Mayor Robert Garcia