While Los Angeles County officials say an indoor mask mandate is likely to be reinstated by the end of the month, Long Beach officials aren’t sure it will be necessary in the city since its metrics are not hitting the same levels as they are countywide.

Long Beach has its own health department, which allows it to set its own guidelines and protocols related to COVID-19. Throughout much of the pandemic, the city has fallen in line with the county, with few exceptions.

“Just like LA County and California, we are seeing an increase in our case rate and our hospitalizations,” Long Beach Health Officer Dr. Anissa Davis said in an interview Friday. “I would say not to the same extent but definitely the same trend.”

The health department does not have any specific metric that will trigger new mandates if a defined level is reached, Davis said. Instead, the department is keeping an eye on the data, especially the new case rate, hospitalizations and the percentage of hospital beds occupied by coronavirus patients, and playing it by ear.

Davis said she still “strongly recommends” masking indoors and said that numerous options are on the table if the current trends continue. She said the department could re-implement an indoor mask mandate for large events, including conventions, or go to a full citywide masking mandate.

“We’ll have to see where we’re at at the time that LA County is implementing the mandate,” Davis said, adding that current metrics indicate the city may not fall in line with the county—at least not on the same timeline. “But we’ll have to see what happens.”

In March, the city dropped its indoor mask mandate to align with the state. Long Beach officials initially said the mandate would be dropped once the seven-day cumulative new case rate dropped below 50 and remained low for two weeks. At the time the mandate was dropped, however, the rate was 97.5.

The cumulative case rate did reach the city’s marker, remaining below 50 from March 25 to to April 15, with a low of 20.8 on April 1. Since mid-April, however, that rate has steadily risen, reaching a new high of 399 last week.

As of Friday, the cumulative seven-day case rate was 317.3, city officials reported Monday.

Over the last few weeks, the city has reported thousands of new coronavirus cases. Last week, the city reported 2,370 new cases, which included data from Fourth of July weekend, the highest number of weekly new cases since the week of Jan. 31. Officials have said cases are likely higher due to the prevalence of at-home tests, the results of which aren’t necessarily reported to authorities.

The city’s vaccination rate is playing a large role in keeping hospitalizations down, Davis said. As of July 9, 70% of Long Beach residents were fully inoculated against the virus, including almost 81% of adults. Over 77% had received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

The total number of people hospitalized with the virus in the Long Beach area, however, is not known by the health department.

Since May 27, the city’s coronavirus dashboard—which was established in the summer of 2020 to keep residents up to date on various metrics and data related to the disease—has shown that 38 people are hospitalized in Long Beach-area hospitals. That figure, however, is inaccurate due to data transfer issues between the city health department and the state, according to Nora Balanji, the city health department’s epidemiology supervisor.

Balanji said a total of 64 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 at Long Beach Memorial and St. Mary Medical Center. The Long Beach-area health system, however, also includes Lakewood Regional and Los Alamitos medical centers, which serve nearby Long Beach residents.

“We work closely with Long Beach Memorial and St. Mary,” Balanji said. “Unfortunately, until we get that situation setup, we don’t know too much about what’s going on at [Lakewood and Los Alamitos].”

Other metrics, including the percentage of ICU beds occupied by coronavirus patients, the city’s non-ICU capacity and its ventilator capacity also have been frozen since May 27.

One bright spot on the city’s dashboard is the number of coronavirus-related deaths being reported is regularly zero. Since March 21, the city has only reported 26 COVID-19 deaths, for an average of 1.6 per week. By contrast, from Jan. 1 through March 18, the city averaged over 16 deaths per week.

Again, Davis said the city’s vaccination rate was to thank for the low number of deaths.

While the vaccine has played a major role in stifling hospitalizations and deaths, Davis acknowledged that it is not as effective in preventing infection. Because of that, and the fact that the virus continues to mutate, the idea of reaching herd immunity is not really discussed anymore, she said.

The efficacy of the vaccines also wanes over time, Davis said. Despite that fact, the city’s booster shot rate remains low at just 36.8% of residents, as of Friday. Data on the second booster shot, which is available to everyone aged 50 and over and those who are immunocompromised is not available. The second booster will likely become available to everyone in the fall, Davis added.

“We will continue to relay the message that it is really important,” Davis said of getting vaccinated. “It does make a life-or-death difference.”

Brandon Richardson is a reporter and photojournalist for the Long Beach Post and Long Beach Business Journal.