Washington’s mayor is dropping the city’s private business COVID-19 vaccine mandate but keeping masking requirements in place for schools. The vaccine mandate, which forced businesses to make sure each customer had received a COVID-19 vaccine, will no longer be in effect, starting Feb. 15. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, said the mandate and other strict rules had led to a drop in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations “We’re in a much better place now to announce adjustments to that action plan,” she said at a press briefing at the Marion S. Barry Jr. Building. Bowser’s latest mask mandate took effect on Dec. 21, 2021. The vaccine mandate took effect on Jan. 15. Cases and hospitalizations kept rising through mid-January before starting to drop around the time the vaccine mandate went into place. They have both continued decreasing. The withdrawal comes after Republican members of Congress promised to exercise oversight of Washington …