Amid a steady increase in COVID-19 infections and hospitalisations in the United States, wearing a face mask at indoor public establishments will once again be mandatory in Los Angeles starting this weekend, health authorities of the county said on Thursday.

With the decision, Los Angeles becomes the first large US metropolis to reimpose the use of face masks — regardless of vaccination status — in shops, grocery stores, restaurants and workplaces to help contain the pandemic, according to AFP inputs.

The new mask mandate will come into effect from midnight Saturday in the county of Los Angeles.

Los Angeles is “not where we need to be” in terms of numbers of vaccinated people, said county health officer Muntu Davis.

On Thursday the county reported 1,537 new cases of infection — the highest number since early March, and the seventh straight day of new cases numbers topping 1,000 — almost 10 times higher than the 135 cases reported exactly a month before.

Earlier, the US health official’s announcement in mid-May said fully vaccinated Americans could say goodbye to their masks both outdoors and indoors.

However, after peaking in April the US immunization campaign has slowed down significantly, even though plenty of vaccines are available. Vaccine-hesitancy among individuals has been the major issue, which even led to US President Joe Biden missing his vaccination target on July 4. Hence, the SOPs have been reimplemented.

The increase in COVID-19 cases, mainly due to the spread of the Delta variant, has some officials worried.

The vast majority of people testing positive for COVID-19, some of whom must be hospitalized, have not been vaccinated.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, Vivek Murthy, Surgeon General of the United States, called for a global effort to combat disinformation regarding COVID-19 and vaccines on Thursday, calling tech businesses, health-care workers, journalists, and ordinary Americans to do more to combat a “serious public threat.”

He opined that false claims have encouraged people to oppose vaccinations and public health guidance on masks and social distancing, hampering efforts to stop the coronavirus pandemic and putting lives in danger.