Los Angeles County backed off Thursday from reinstating a universal indoor masking mandate as the latest wave of Covid-19 begins to flatten and new hospitalizations start to decline, putting off the resumption of an unpopular policy. The most populous county in the U.S. had been poised to start requiring masks in most public settings Friday for the first time since March because of the rapid spread of the highly contagious Omicron subvariant BA.5. But health officials said the latest numbers, according to the county’s own calculations, did not support remasking.

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