The Norman City Council on Tuesday voted to approve a mandatory mask ordinance.
The measure passed 8-1 at the virtual meeting, and applies to public places including stores, retail establishments, houses of worship, among others.
"By God, if Texas can do it, then we can do it too," Mayor Breea Clark said before the motion passed. "Our residents are worth it."
"The lives of Norman residents are worth fighting for," Clark tweeted late Tuesday evening.
Norman is the largest municipality in Oklahoma to institute a mandatory mask policy. Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum has so far rejected such a measure, though he has said that he would implement one if recommended by Dr. Bruce Dart, head of the Tulsa Health Department. Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt said he didn't believe a mandate would be enforceable. Governor Kevin Stitt has vowed to never consider a mask mandate, saying that Oklahomans "believe in freedoms."
On Tuesday, the nation's leading expert on infectious disease, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes for Health, urged local governments to adopt mask mandates.
Oklahoma posted its highest ever single-day increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases on Tuesday.
