AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) Maine lawmakers are reconvening without a mask requirement for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Legislative leaders lifted the mask mandate this week, and the full Legislature was gathering for the first time since then on Wednesday.

Anger boiled over last year when seven conservative lawmakers entered the State House without wearing masks, frustrated over rules that were stricter than those in place for the public at large. That resulted in the lawmakers losing their committee assignments.

The vote by the Legislative Council to lift the masking requirement for lawmakers was anticlimactic, and it came against a backdrop of declining COVID-19 hospitalizations decline in Maine.

A universal masking recommendation for public schools and child care providers was also lifted on Wednesday.