Bars, wineries, breweries, nightclubs and lounges in Los Angeles County will soon require proof of vaccination before entry.

L.A. County Department of Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer made the announcement of the upcoming requirement at the Board of Supervisors meeting earlier today.

The new requirement is amid several new local and federal mandates made in the past month, including President Joe Biden’s “Path out of the Pandemic” plan, which required any employers with 100 employees or more to ensure that all of their workers were either vaccinated or tested weekly.

Public comments at the meeting were both in support of and in opposition to the new mandate. One L.A. county resident, Aaron Doll, wrote that he strongly supported the new requirement and even supported “a vaccination mandate requiring proof of vaccination for indoor public gatherings such as in-person indoor dining, fitness centers, theaters, etc.”

Another resident, Katherine Pilot, voiced strong opposition to the mandate, writing: “I do not consent to vaccination mandates, vaccination passports, and the like. Our bodily autonomy is vital. Without it, we are not a free society.”

The LACDPH presented and cited several statistics at the meeting showing the correlation between being unvaccinated and the rising rates of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths between May 1 and Aug. 21 in L.A. County.

In August 2021, there were 1,896 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people over the age of 12 among the unvaccinated, as opposed to 450 per 100,000 cases among those who have been vaccinated, according to the LACDPH.

The hospitalizations and death rates among the unvaccinated are also significantly higher, with the death ratio of the unvaccinated to vaccinated individuals in L.A. County being 10-1.

The exact date of when the new requirement will go into effect or how it will be enforced has not been announced yet.