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Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich has more on President Biden’s masking during public events and the upcoming G20 Summit on ‘Special Report.’
The City of Huntington Beach, California, voted Wednesday to ban universal mask and vaccine mandates for COVID-19.
The matter was submitted by Mayor Pro Tem Gracey Van Der Mark, and included on the city’s agenda for Tuesday.
Van Der Mark said mask mandates imposed in the city “unnecessarily limited the freedoms of the citizens of Huntington Beach — even those who were not around anyone who tested positive for COVID-19 or at risk of any exposure.”
People make their way to the beach as they cross the Pacific Coast Highway in downtown Huntington Beach, Calif. (Mark Rightmire/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images/File)
The declaration narrowly passed, with the City Council voting 4-3 before adjoining around 2:48 a.m. The ban will apply to city officials and not private businesses.
RETURN OF MASK MANDATES IS ‘BLOWING MY MIND’: GOV. KRISTI NOEM
“Individuals, whether at City Hall or in the private sector, should have a right to choose whether to wear a mask or get vaccinated or boosted,” the motion said.
The Huntington Beach ban on COVID-19 masks and vaccines comes amid a slight uptick in COVID cases in the city. (iStock)
The ban comes amid a slight uptick in COVID cases in the city and across the city.
Huntington Beach, approximately an hour’s drive south of Los Angeles, was largely defiant of statewide mask mandates throughout the pandemic, running contrary to the state’s Draconian measures.
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More broadly, the city has for decades been a conservative bastion for people whose gripes go far behind the state’s response to the pandemic.
Bradford Betz is a Fox News Digital breaking reporter covering crime, political issues, and much more.
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