'It's not backed by science!' LA County Sheriff says he WON'T enforce new indoor mask mandate

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The Los Angeles County Sheriff says he will not enforce a new mandate requiring all residents to wear facemasks inside, saying the move is 'not backed by science'.

On Thursday, health officials in LA County announced that masks would be made mandatory in all indoor spaces amid a surge in new coronavirus cases.

But on Friday, Sheriff Alex Villanueva released a statement saying his officers would not be fining residents who do not comply with the order, as many are already vaccinated or have previously been infected with COVID-19.

Villanueva said the mandate 'is not backed by science and contradicts the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines.'

'The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) has authority to enforce the order, but the underfunded/defunded Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department will not expend our limited resources and instead ask for voluntary compliance,' he said in the statement, obtained by Fox News.

'We encourage the DPH to work collaboratively with the Board of Supervisors and law enforcement to establish mandates that are both achievable and supported by science.'

Current CDC guidelines state: 'If you’ve been fully vaccinated you can resume activities without wearing a mask or staying 6 feet apart, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations',

The new LA mask mandate - which comes into effect at 11.59pm on Saturday - will require people to wear the face covering at events and in all stores, restaurants, offices and gyms.

Officials decided to implement the order after more than 1,000 COVID-19 cases were clocked across LA County every day over the past week.

The surge in cases has been blamed on the Indian Delta coronavirus variant, which now makes up nearly three-quarters of all new infections in Los Angeles

Dr. Muntu Davis, Los Angeles County Health Officer, announced the new mandate on Thursday.

'This is an all-hands-on-deck moment,' he proclaimed, citing the alarming uptick in cases.

Requirements for mask swill be similar to the rules that were in place before California relaxed its rules on June 15.

Since then, the average number of cases has risen 150 percent from about 400 per day to more than 1,000 per day, the highest numbers seen since March.

The test positivity rate has also increase from 0.5 percent to 3.79 percent.

Hospitalizations are also trending upward, doubling from an average of 200 COVID-19 patients hospitalized to around 400 patients.

'We took a chance in terms of lifting the physical distancing requirements as well as the capacity limits. We changed the masking at the time,' Davis said.

'We felt it was reasonable to do given the level of community transmission that we had at that moment. But this is not the same situation. We're in a very different situation. This is not the same as what it was June 15.'