JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. – All Jefferson County residents and visitors over the age of 4, with some health-related exemptions, will be required to wear face shields in most public settings beginning at 5 p.m. Tuesday after the County issued a public health order Tuesday afternoon.
Jeffco is the latest metropolitan area health department to require face coatings, which have increasingly become a political hot spot in Colorado, as many counties and municipalities require their use due to scientific evidence that helps restrict the spread of the virus, while others denounce what they believe to be an overreach by the government on personal freedoms.
“As cases have started to rise sharply in the Denver metropolitan area and Jefferson County, we are looking at the tools we have to prevent overvoltages from occurring in other parts of our country, including neighboring states,” he said. . Dr. Mark B. Johnson, Executive Director of JCPH. “While we have always strongly encouraged our residents to cover their faces, we joined with others in the Denver metro area to go one step further and make them mandatory.”
The Jefferson County mask mandate will require residents over the age of 4 to wear a mask or face mask whenever they are in public and cannot maintain 6 feet of social distance. Jeffco residents will not have to use them in private residences or in their personal vehicle when driving alone or with household members.
There are also exemptions for when people work alone in a single closed space, for when they would create unsafe working conditions, for when a person’s health would inhibit them from using one (if they have documentation), for people with hearing disabilities if their lips are Reading is necessary, in certain first aid emergencies and in certain other situations, such as when eating and drinking in a restaurant.
Jefferson County Public Health says it “will seek voluntary compliance through education, technical assistance and warning notices,” but that the order “can be enforced by any legal means.”
People who break the law could face a fine of up to $ 1,000 and up to a year in the county jail, the order says. Companies that allow people to enter without the necessary facial coatings may be subject to suspension or revocation of their license.
The order will take effect from 5 p.m. on Tuesday until 6 a.m. on the following Wednesday, but it can be extended, canceled, replaced or modified.
JCPH says there has been “a large increase” in COVID-19 cases in the county since mid-June, with 230 new cases last week and an increase in hospitalizations.
Governor Jared Polis again reiterated Tuesday that he was testing different messaging strategies to increase the voluntary use of masks across the state, and again did not rule out a state-wide mask mandate, which some Colorado residents have vehemently called for and others They strongly oppose it despite public health experts saying that more and more data shows that masks reduce the spread of the virus from person to person.
“Evidence shows that when more people wear a mask, COVID-19 transmission can be reduced, which means that fewer people get sick with the virus and can continue to rebuild our economy,” Jill Hunsaker, executive director of the Department of Health Public and Environment of Colorado. Ryan said Tuesday.
Polis again said Tuesday that increased mask use in Colorado is one of the “keys” to preventing the gradual increase here from returning to exponential growth, as happened in April.
Governor Jared Polis says now is the time to take small steps to prevent the COVID-19 surge from spiking
He said he has struggled between respecting the bodily autonomy of the people of Colorado and recognizing that the masks are meant to stop the spread of the virus to other people, not just to prevent the person from getting it. But he added, as he has in recent weeks regarding similar questions, that the state does not have a mechanism to enforce a state mandate at the local level, so it has supported the mandates at the local level.
Polis said he and his teams were working to collect data to show whether or not a state mask mandate increases the use of mask as an option before making a full decision on a state mask mandate.
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