A major Hollywood studio has reintroduced Covid mask mandates over fears of rising virus rates and a new highly mutated variant.
Lionsgate — best known for its horror franchise Saw and the Hunger Games — is asking staff to put on face coverings again at its flagship office in Santa Monica, California, after several employees tested positive.
It also strongly urges employees to test themselves before coming to their desks — and to alert managers if they test positive or show symptoms of the virus.
The company — which employs some 5,000 people — said the rules would remain in place “until further notice,” with winter officially four months away.
It comes after a university in Atlanta, Georgia, also reintroduced mask mandates and began calling for doctors to make coverage mandatory in healthcare settings. Nationwide, Covid hospitalizations have risen for five weeks in a row, although they are still lower than at this time last year.
Lionsgate, a Hollywood studio, has ordered nearly half of its employees to start wearing face masks again. The rule is in effect at their Santa Monica, California building until further notice
US hospitalizations are up for a fifth week in a row, but are also barely a third of their level from this time last year
The number of deaths from Covid-19 currently remains static, after rising by four percent in a week. They hover around record levels
The face mask rule was revealed in an email signed by Lionsgate response manager Sommer McElroy, reports deadline.
It says, “Employees must wear a medical grade face covering (surgical mask, KN95 or N95) indoors.
“(This is) except when they are alone in an office with the door closed, actively eating, actively drinking at their desk or workplace, or if they are the only person present in a large open workspace.”
The masking rule affects levels three and five of their five-story headquarters, they said.
Employees should also notify managers if they have traveled anywhere outside of Santa Monica in the past 10 days.
The move came after the Los Angeles Department of Health said there had been a “small” rise in Covid “indicators” — meaning cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
Nationally, hospital admissions rose for the fifth week in a row and rose by 21.6 percent in seven days to 12,613 admissions.
But this is still barely a third of the levels recorded at the same time last year.
The number of deaths also remains static, with 484 reported last week, a four percent increase from 465 over the previous seven days.
There is no official data on Covid cases due to a lack of testing and reporting, but wastewater monitoring shows they are on the rise.
The uptick comes amid concerns about the Covid variants EG.5 and a new variant that scientists fear could spark a new wave of infections, dubbed BA.X or BA.2.86.
Surveillance shows that the EG.5 strain is now dominant in the US, with experts raising concerns that it may be more transmissible than previous variants.
Only six cases of BA.X have been recorded so far – only one in the US, in Michigan.
But there are concerns about the strain because it has more than 30 mutations and is genetically distinct from all other currently circulating variants.
This increases the risk of it being more able to evade immunity and cause infection.
An employee offers a face mask to a man at the Chinese hospital in San Francisco, in August 2021 during the pandemic
Former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb warned this weekend that he was “deeply concerned” about the new strain, saying it may be more contagious than other variants.
But at the moment, he added, there is no evidence that it is more likely to cause serious illness or death.
The Hollywood studio’s move comes after Morris Brown College in Atlanta, a private liberal arts college, also ordered students and staff to wear face masks in hallways and lecture halls.
The college says the rules have been in effect for two weeks and were activated due to “reports of positive cases among students.”
Students are also told to maintain social distancing and all parties and large gatherings are prohibited.
Georgia’s Covid case count has risen for three weeks in a row, but overall infection and hospitalization rates remain low.