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BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) – The Boulder County Board of Health has extended the Boulder County Public Health Order that requires face coverings for every person older than 12 years old whenever in public anywhere in Boulder County that social distancing of six feet cannot be maintained.

The Order will remain in place through Tuesday, June 30.

“Our team conducted informal observations in Boulder County communities and distributed a survey to businesses to get a sense of how well the order is being followed,” said Jeff Zayach, Boulder County Public Health executive director. “Although we saw many instances where social distancing of six feet or more was not being followed, we are seeing high rates of compliance with the face covering order, especially in municipalities that also have a masking order. Wearing face coverings in public is one way for our community to help stop the spread while allowing us to reopen our economy; I want to thank our community for taking this seriously. It’s important to remember that maintaining six feet or more distance between each other, in conjunction with masking and handwashing, is still the primary way to prevent the spread of this disease.”

Boulder County Board of Health says that a cloth mask will prevent large droplets of respiratory particles from being expelled into the air, which may contain virus particles if that person is infected.

Health officials say that facial coverings can reduce the spread of droplets from the wearer to others, but do not necessarily protect the wearer from others.

The order does have exceptions, including people working alone in an office, anyone whose health would be negatively impacted by wearing a face covering (including mental health impacts), children aged 12 years and younger, and first responders under certain circumstances.

Although children under 12 are not required to wear masks, health officials do recommend that children ages three through 12 should wear them.

Children younger than three should not wear a face covering due to their risk of suffocation.

Details of this Public Health Order are available here.