During the mass gathering Sunday night at SoFi Stadium, some 70,000 fans cheered for the Rams and the Bengals. However, most of them were not wearing masks. 

Health officials of Los Angeles County, where the the SoFi Stadium is located and the Super Bowl LVI was played, stressed that a mask mandate covered the mega-event – in force for outdoor events of more than 5,000 people or indoor events of more than 500 – regardless of vaccination status.

The National Football League (NFL) also reinforced those protocols on its website, and requested that fans aged 5 and older showed either a COVID-19 vaccine card, a negative PCR test within 48 hours or a negative antigen test within 24 hours to enter the venue.

Spectators were handed a KN95 mask upon entry, but TV coverage clearly showed that many fans, including celebrities, did not wear them. 

The risk of a vaccinated person getting infected at mass gatherings remains 16 times higher if that individual fails to wear a mask, according to a pre-print study from Japan. 

The researchers constructed an estimation model to run simulations of the viral dynamics in a 40,000-seat stadium and found that the average risk of infection is about 0.013 percent during a game where vaccinated people wear masks at a stadium with proper ventilation. 

That best-case-scenario prediction would yield about nine new infections after the wild night of more than 70,000 attendees sharing the stadium for at least three hours. 

LA County has seen among the highest rates for infections and deaths in the state of 40 million, and some of the most restrictive pandemic rules in the nation have been imposed there.

Yet some of the county's officials are reconsidering the blanket COVID-19 masking policies. 

"They don’t make a difference when they’re not consistently followed or enforced," the AP reported County's Supervisor Kathryn Barger as saying on January 31. "I strongly believe individuals should be allowed to make an informed choice about whether to mask up or not."

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti was photographed not wearing a mask when attending a NFC championship game at SoFi between the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers two weeks ago.

Garcetti pushed back by claiming that he was holding his breath when taking a photograph. "I'm holding my breath literally for two seconds," the mayor said. "There is a zero percent chance of infection from that."

California is among the states moving to relax indoor masking requirements for those who have been vaccinated, starting February 15, officials announced last week. 

New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, and Oregon have all said they will end mask mandates in late February or March. 

Deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. surpassed 900,000 last Friday.