ANCHORAGE (AP) — The Anchorage assembly has overridden the mayor’s veto of an emergency order instituting a mask mandate for 60 days.
The assembly on Oct. 14 overturned Mayor Dave Bronson’s veto of the measure requiring masks for most everyone in indoor public spaces on a 9-2 vote.
Alaska averaged about 900 new infections a day last week, down from the September surge but still high enough to lead the 50 states in per-capita COVID-19 cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Almost half of last week’s new cases were in Anchorage, where hospitals have been struggling to keep up with the caseload.
The assembly held days of public hearings for a mask ordinance, drawing so much opposition and with so many people wanting to comment that it stretched into a second week — and still wasn’t over.
Then during a meeting Oct. 12, the assembly approved an emergency ordinance putting a mask mandate in place. Bronson, a staunch critic of COVID-19 mandates, vetoed the ordinance the next day.
The assembly overrode the mayor’s action a day later.
The ordinance mandates people wear masks in indoor public places and communal spaces. Among the exemptions are children under the age of 5, those playing sports or attending church, and members of the mayor’s administration.
Businesses must deny entry to people who aren’t wearing masks, though the ordinance imposes no specific penalties for non-compliance.
While the ordinance sets a 60-day timeframe for masking, the order would be canceled if two of Anchorage’s three hospitals are no longer operating under crisis care protocols or if the city does not have a high transmission rate of COVID-19.
During earlier hearings, some opponents of any mask mandate wore homemade yellow Stars of David, the same as Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis, to draw a comparison to what Jews faced in Germany.
Assembly member Jamie Allard, who opposed the original mask mandate, said the emergency ordinance would draw “strong backlash” and that government officials “should never push our medical advice on anybody.”
“I will not comply,” she said.
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