London Breed, the Mayor of California’s San Francisco, released a statement defending her actions after she was spotted flouting COVID-19 related regulations over the weekend while dancing along a live music performance at what seems like a nightclub.
The 47-year-old politician said that she was aware of the restrictions in place and was following them but did not take any extreme measures to stick to them, IBT reported.
“No. I am not going to sip and put my mask on, sip and put my mask up, eat and put my mask on. While I am eating and drinking, I am gonna keep my mask off”, Breed said in a statement.
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Breed’s statement added, “My drink was sitting at the table. I got up and started dancing because I was feeling the spirit, and I was not thinking about a mask”, according to reports from IBT.
Breed came under the scanner of both opposing politicians and social media users for not maintaining the city’s COVID-19 protocols, which have been known to be one of the most rigid in the country.
A Twitter user wrote, “San Francisco Mayor @LondonBreed partied maskless indoors with Black Lives Matter activists. Do any Democrats actually obey their own mask mandates?”.
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According to reports from SFGate, the COVID-19 protocols in San Francisco permit people to remove their face masks “while actively eating or drinking”. It states, “People are urged to be seated at a table or positioned at a stationary counter or place while eating or drinking”.
Meanwhile, the San Francisco Chronicle further reported that Breed was neither seated at a table nor positioned at a stationary counter but she was standing and dancing without any food or drinks in her hand.
She was also seen posing for photos while not wearing a mask.