After Washington, D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser was seen maskless at her birthday party Friday, a day before her new indoor mask mandate began, she officiated a wedding Saturday that was followed by an indoor reception that saw her maskless, a violation of the city's reinstated mask requirement.
The mayor's new mask mandate, which went into effect Saturday at 5 a.m., was issued following updated guidance from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which urged people to wear a mask indoors in areas of high transmission, regardless of vaccination status.
Despite the mayor's order, the wedding reception she attended at a four star D.C. hotel included hundreds of guests, who, like Bowser, were not wearing masks at the indoor venue.
And while the event featured a meal, Bowser still remained without a face covering while she was not actively eating or drinking, a violation of her reimposed face covering requirement.
A reporter attempted to approach the mayor to get a response on her violation of the city's new mask mandate but was blockaded by security personnel.
Last year, following the 2020 election, Bowser went to Delaware to attend now-President Joe Biden's victory speech amid the state's high number of cases at the time. The mayor insisted the trip was "essential travel."
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In D.C., about 55 percent of residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and 63 percent have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the district's coronavirus data. Despite the new highly infective delta variant of the coronavirus, vaccination has shown to be more effective than masks.
Only four vaccinated D.C. residents, who were all elderly or had preexisting conditions, have died from the coronavirus out of the nearly 400,000 people in the district who are fully vaccinated against it.
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