CA Will Stop Requiring COVID Vaccine Proof At Large Indoor Events

CALIFORNIA — Last summer, authorities told Californians they would have to have their vaccinations cards or a negative COVID-19 test upon entering an indoor concert or large event. Beginning next month, those rules will disappear.

The state cited falling cases for its reason to drop sweeping mandates for "mega events," which are defined as a gathering with more than 1,000 attendees indoors.

Although the mandate will end on April 1, officials are still strongly recommending that venues and event centers still require masking as well as vaccine and testing proof.

"This shift acknowledges that while case rates and hospitalizations are declining statewide from their peak during the Omicron surge, Indoor Mega Events continue to involve several factors that increase the risk of transmission of COVID-19," officials from the California Department of Public Health said in a statement.

It remains to be seen just how quickly counties will follow suit — especially Los Angeles, which has historically remained the virus' epicenter in California.

The news comes as the state continues to shed COVID-19-related rules amid declining cases. Last month, California dropped its indoor mask mandate at most places except for high transmission settings such as hospitals and public transportation.

The state also dropped masking mandates in most places for unvaccinated people last month. The announcement came as students gained the ability to unmask in their classrooms once again for the first time in two years.

The announcement also comes in a time where the state could potentially see an uptick in cases amid the omicron subvariant, BA.2. In San Diego and Riverside counties, a slight uptick in hospitalizations was recorded last week, reversing a downward trend, but it's unclear if BA.2 was driving those cases.

The World Health Organization recorded the first week-over-week increase in COVID cases since late January. Cases climbed 8 percent globally last week, according to the WHO.

BA. 2 has already made landfall in California. Scripps Research Translational Institute microbiologist Kristian Andersen tweeted last week that most all new cases in San Diego County would be BA.2 in the coming weeks.

Dr. Kimberly Shriner, an infectious disease specialist at Huntington Hospital, told Patch that the ongoing conflict in Ukraine is also likely to shake things up worldwide.

"There's this BA.2 variant of omicron that's circulating in Denmark and what hat worries me a lot in that situation is with all of this movement of people out of Ukraine into Eastern Europe," she told Patch last week. "Understandably, you don't have time to put a mask on when you're going to have a bomb dropped on your head.

"With the movement of all these people crammed together, you can have another surge," she said.

READ MORE: 'A Terrible Cost': CA Marks 2 Years With COVID-19