California city votes to ban universal COVID-19 mask and vaccine mandates

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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, California. (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. 

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"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 Southern California city. (iStock)

The ban comes amid a slight uptick in COVID cases in 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 beyond the state’s response to the pandemic.