LAKEWOOD, Colo. (KDVR) — After more than seven hours of debate, the Jefferson County Board of Health voted to instate a mask requirement for indoor buildings. The order allows businesses to turn away customers aged 3 years and older who are not wearing a mask.

Ahead of the vote, over a hundred residents came out to express concerns about the proposed health order. More than 600 comments and emails were sent over to the health department before the meeting even kicked off. Many of the concerns were about implementing a mask mandate, businesses were worried about putting their employees in charge of compliance.

“So the important thing we want to bring today was to show people that small business owners and individual families are going to be affected by their mandates. So we had many, many small business owners that spoke today, we had individuals, moms, dads that spoke to the effect it would have on their families and business,” said Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Colorado’s District 7 Laurel Imer.

The county health director said the move is about getting numbers down across the Front Range.

“Increasing boosters and pediatric vaccine uptake, increasing transmission control including mask-wearing and indoor public spaces and increasing monoclonal antibody treatment access, if we put those all together, we have the best opportunity to avoid overwhelming our hospitals,” said Dr. Dawn Comstock.

Outside of enforcement, people also advocated for education; they want to make sure people in the community have access to health orders and data showing why one could be needed.