Jefferson County Board Of Health Votes To End Indoor Mask Mandate Feb. 18
JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4)- The Jefferson County Board of Health voted unanimously on Thursday afternoon to end their indoor mask mandates on Feb. 18 as long COVID-19 data continues to trend in the right direction. As COVID-19 cases continue to drop in Colorado, mask mandates are following.
"Is there ever going to be a perfect time we don't know, could something come up again down the road of course," Cheri Jahn said.
Jahn is the President of the Jefferson County Board of Health who on Thursday voted to end the indoor mask requirement on Feb. 18. After several hours of discussion, the board members agreed they will look at the data again at their regularly scheduled meeting on Feb. 15 for a better idea of where their numbers stand, pending good news the order will expire.
The decision which includes schools and childcare facilities was made following a review of where COVID-19 cases stand in Colorado, zeroing in on the youngest population zero to 4 years old.
"This is very positive news that even in a group that does not have this really strong tool for protection, their case counts are decreasing as well," Christine Billings, head of the Office of Pandemic Response at JCPH said.
The Jefferson County School District says they support the decision, but according to the Board asked that rather than letting the order expire immediately they would like time to make the transition as safe as possible.
"They want to ensure that they have put into place all the mitigation efforts necessary to protect medically fragile children."
Under the guidance of the Tri-County Health Department, Adams and Arapahoe school districts will end their mandates in schools as well.
Denver Public Schools, the state's largest school district, will remain masked under a county mandate specific to schools.
According to their online dashboard updated on Thursday, they have roughly 150 positive COVID-19 cases compared to Jefferson County that reported just 37 total cases on their tracker Wednesday.
CBS4 asked Denver Public Health and Environment about their decision to keep the separate public health order for schools in effect, in part they say, "The goal of the mandate is to limit the spread of COVID-19 in schools and keep kids in school for in-person learning. Denver continues to closely monitor vaccination rates and cases in children and will lift the school face covering order when it's safe to do so."
