Mayor of Washington, D.C. Muriel Bowser has reimposed the city’s indoor mask mandate as part of her administration’s plan for the “State of Emergency 2022 Winter Surge.”
The mask mandate, which expired November 22, has been reinstated and will apply to stores, offices, houses of worship, restaurants, government buildings, and other public indoor settings. The state of emergency plan also requires that government workers be fully vaccinated with a booster shot.
The mayor’s strategy to combat the spike in Covid cases within her jurisdiction also includes expanding testing, distributing rapid tests to public school students upon their return from winter break, and adding more testing and vaccination centers.
Bowser has repeatedly sent mixed signals on the mask requirement, suggesting it will be phased it out only to bring it back weeks later.
“What you'll hear discussed across the nation is, we're moving from a pandemic to an endemic,” the mayor said when she discontinued the mandate in November. “I anticipate that's where we'll be moving too. Rather than the government telling you what you need to do to keep safe, you will evaluate risk and act accordingly.”
At the time, Bowser came into conflict with the D.C. city council, which opposed her decision to end the mask mandate.
The council promptly urged the mayor to reverse the move in a letter, writing: “We are concerned that this decision would place the District ahead of the science, including continuing guidance from the Centers for Disease Control that still recommends that masking indoors is the safest way to protect everyone from COVID-19 exposure. Even the White House will maintain its mandate.”
While she stood by the action, Bowser has contradicted herself throughout the pandemic by defying the mask rule. The most notable infraction was at a wedding she officiated in July where she was pictured maskless at the indoor reception, neither eating nor drinking per the exception to the rule, the Washington Examiner reported. After receiving backlash for her hypocrisy, the mayor’s office issued a defense claiming she was in compliance throughout the duration of the event, despite the photographic evidence to the contrary.
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