St. Louis County ended its mask mandate 24 hours after the county's own executive enacted it to try and curtail the surging number of COVID cases locally.
The rule was rescinded on Tuesday evening, just hours after being re-enacted Monday.
It saw all locals ordered to wear masks while in indoor public settings in the Missouri county - which includes around half of the City of St Louis - regardless of whether they'd been vaccinated.
Videos showing the cheering crowd - which vocalized their disapproval for hours - circulated on social media after Tuesday night's 5-2 council vote in favor of ditching the masks.
'Too many American men and women have given the last full measure of devotion for us to be cavalier with the very liberty they fought and died to provide,' Councilman Ernie Trakas said.
'I will not abide any measures that seek to compromise or erode our liberty and freedom.'
The mandate was announced by County Executive Sam Page last week and went into effect Monday. It was met with harsh criticism and attacks on social media, which included pictures of furious locals burning masks.
Locals cheer after St Louis County in Missouri rescinded its mask mandate Tuesday - just a day after the county's own executive reimposed it
Most of the large audience who attended Tuesday's St. Louis County meeting spoke out against the mask mandate
St. Louis County residents fought against the mask mandate, which was rescinded by the county council Tuesday night
The crowd cheered the council following the 5-2 vote against the mask mandate
Many social media users, like this Twitter user showed their disgust with St. Louis County's mask mandate as soon as it was announced
Page has expressed concerns about the Delta variant and the toll its taking on the county, which is separate from the city of St. Louis.
This particular variant - listed as B.1.617.2 - accounts for over 83percent of COVID-19 cases in the United States, according to the CDC.
In St. Louis County, there's been a 45 percent spike in reported cases, nearly 40 percent increase in coronavirus-related hospitalizations and 10 deaths, according to the latest numbers from the CDC, which run from July 19 to July 25.
Of the 994,205 county residents, 55.9 percent have at least one shot of the vaccine, according to the CDC.
Before the council voted, acting couny health director Faisal Khan warned the Delta variant would eventually overwhelm hospitals.
'If the council, in its infinite wisdom, negates this order, there will be more misery,' Khan said. 'There will be more infection. There will be more death.'
Page, who was following Khan's input when he reintroduced the indoor mask mandate regardless of vaccination status, continued to urge people to wear their masks.
His latest post on Twitter was Tuesday night after the vote. He retweeted the CDC's Tweet saying, '#DeltaVariant surging in U.S. New data show Delta much more contagious than previous versions of #COVID19. Unvaccinated people: get vaccinated & mask until you do. Everyone in areas of substantial/high transmission should wear a mask, even if vaccinated.'
The entire state of Missouri - especially the state's urban areas - is wrestling with a COVID resurgence, and only around 41 percent of its residents are vaccinated compared to about 57 percent of the US as a whole.
Missouri ranks fourth nationally in the most new cases per capita in the past 14 days, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering to measure outbreak caseloads and deaths across the US.
Nearly the entire state of Missouri is red, indicating raging transmission of COVID across the state
St. Louis County had been one of a handful of municipalities to reintroduce masks before its sudden reversal.
Missouri's most populated city - Kansas City - has also demanded the return of the face coverings.
On Wednesday, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas announced the city will require masks indoors for everyone older than 5 years old, regardless of their vaccination status.
That will go in effect on August 2.
The city of Savannah in Georgia and Los Angeles already implemented indoor mask mandates.
Workers in Clark County, Nevada, which includes Las Vegas, will have to resume wearing masks indoors. Customers will not be forced to, under new rules.
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