A new poll found that Washington, D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser's move to drop the district's vaccine mandate earlier this week was not a popular one, with less than a quarter of respondents saying they do not favor the mandates.
The poll, conducted by The Washington Post, discovered that 74 percent of D.C. residents supported the rule mandating that businesses such as restaurants, bars and concert venues require their customers to show proof of vaccination before entering. This, compared to just 24 percent who said they opposed the mandate and two percent saying they were unsure.
And 63 percent of residents said they believed Bowser had implemented the "right amount" of COVID restrictions while 16 percent said too many restrictions were issued and 19 percent said she had not issued enough.
Since Jan. 15, certain establishments risked fines if they failed to require that patrons over 12-years-old provide proof of vaccination.
Then on Monday, Bowser announced at a press briefing that the vaccine mandate would be lifted, noting that the district is "in a much better place now."
According to WTOP, the indoor mask mandate for gyms, salons and bars will also expire on Feb. 28. But buildings such as schools, child care facilities and libraries must still require indoor masking.
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Bowser said COVID cases have dipped more than 90 percent and hospitalizations have reduced by 95 percent since the omicron surge in the district.
"What we know is that we have to be nimble, if something should change, like it changed in December, with a new, very contagious variant," Bowser said. "I don't think any of us can say here that there won't be other variants that would require us to do something different. So just like when omicron presented itself, we adjusted our approach."
In December, Bowser brought back the indoor mask mandate once the omicron variant hit the U.S. after lifting it the month before.
The poll was conducted from Feb. 2-14, surveying 904 adult D.C. residents. It has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
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