The Larimer County Department of Health and Environment will be in charge of enforcing Colorado’s new mask ordinance in the county, and the Loveland Police Department and the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office will both take a hands-off approach to enforcement.

On Thursday, Gov. Jared Polis issued an executive order requiring everyone in the state age 11 and older to wear a face covering while in public indoor spaces, including businesses.

Colorado is one of 28 states to have some form of mask requirement, which Polis said he issued in response to a troubling resurgence of COVID-19 cases over the summer.

In Larimer County, health officials echoed similar sentiments. On Tuesday, health director Tom Gonzales told the county commissioners that the county had grown “lax” in its mask wearing and that if cases continued to rise it could be in danger of losing its variance from the state that allowed larger gatherings and that lowered restrictions on the number of occupants in businesses..

Complaints about people not wearing masks have tripled in the past two weeks, health department spokeswoman Katie O’Donnell said.

The department hopes that the new public health order will encourage county residents to take mask wearing more seriously, she said.

“If we can’t get our cases under control we’ll lose our variance,” she said. “The face covering is a very important part of that for us.”

People should report violations directly to the health department, O’Donnell said, not their local police department.

“It’s not a law enforcement issue, it’s a public health issue,” she said.

Residents can submit complaints through a form on the department’s website at larimer.org/health or by calling the joint information center at 970-498-5500.

The health department has not shut down any businesses for not enforcing mask wearing, but it will be increasing its enforcement and visiting businesses that don’t comply to remind them that it is a requirement, O’Donnell said.

The city of Loveland released a statement Friday asking local businesses to lead in helping people comply with the order.

“Unless a sudden spike in local pandemic case numbers can be stemmed or reversed, Larimer County businesses could lose the benefits of a variance granted by the state this spring that allows them much greater flexibility and creates more opportunities for them to reach customers,” the statement said.

Local law enforcement agencies will take a hands-off approach to the issue.

“The LPD does not believe that writing tickets or prosecuting people for not wearing a mask is an effective strategy,” Loveland police spokesman Bob Shaffer told the Reporter-Herald. “We will rely on verbal warnings and educating people to get them to comply.”

The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office encourages people to wear masks but will refer reports of violations to the health department, Sheriff’s Office spokesman David Moore said.

“We are not actually enforcing the mask mandate, all those will be referred to the health department,” he said.

If there is some other incident connected to someone not wearing a mask that would require law enforcement assistance, “then obviously we would respond,” Moore said.

On his Facebook page, Larimer County Sheriff’s Justin Smith criticized Polis’ ordinance, saying that he believed the governor had overstepped his authority.

“Colorado police officers are very unlikely to risk violating the constitutional rights of citizens based on a very questionable directive from the governor,” Smith wrote.