As stay-at-home orders start to ease up a bit, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said airport travelers and other passengers around the city will be required to wear a face covering to ward off the spread of COVID-19 as more and more people begin to move around.
Starting Monday, all travelers and anyone at the Los Angeles International Airport must wear a face covering. Acceptable face coverings include bandanas, scarves, T-shirts or other fabric materials held in place, LAX officials noted on Twitter.
“The new requirement aligns with what many airlines are doing as well,” Garcetti said at his daily coronavirus briefing Wednesday evening. “Right now many airlines require the passengers and flight crews to wear face coverings on flights, and these are steps that will help us all be safe.”
Several airlines, including JetBlue, American, Delta and United, readjusted their policies earlier this week to require passengers to wear face coverings. Other airlines were expected to roll out similar rules this week.
Many airline crew members had already been required to cover their faces, while American Airlines started to provide passengers with hand sanitizing wipes and gels when available, officials said.
Along with mandatory face coverings at LAX, all riders on the Los Angeles Department of Transportation’s DASH, Commuter Express and Cityride buses must also wear protective face coverings, Garcetti said.
“It is very important that everybody take this step and cover their faces on buses so that other riders and bus operators can stay healthy,” he said.
The LADOT face mask police also goes into effect on Monday.