No mask mandate for Duluth after City Council vote

Duluth city councilors voted not to reinstate an indoor mask mandate.

The vote on an emergency declaration was 7-2 with Councilors Derek Medved and Roz Randorf opposed. The emergency declaration needed to be unanimous to pass and had to be in place before the mask mandate itself could be voted on. For that reason, the mask mandate automatically failed.

A number of city councilors were both for and against the mandate. Councilor Derek Medved said previously to WDIO that a mask mandate is "not going to do the job" of accomplishing the goal of keeping the community safe.

Councilor Terese Tomanek, one of the members who proposed the measure, saying that reinstating the mandate is necessary in lowering positivity rate and hospitalizations in the area.

"We’ve done {a mandate} before and it helped tremendously," said Tomanek.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.