California’s plan aims to pick up rising viral transmission early and rapidly sequence new variants to determine whether vaccines and therapeutics are still effective.
The state also aims to rapidly deploy additional testing and hospital staff to regions impacted by an outbreak.
The state could reimpose mask mandates depending on the dominant variant and how much disruption it’s causing.
California on Thursday laid out a plan that manages Covid as a permanent aspect of life, anticipating future surges and new variants that may require temporary public health measures such as facemasks depending on how much the virus is disrupting economic and social activity.