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Weld County public health director to retire as area remains a focal point for coronavirus

Weld County public health director to retire as area remains
a focal point for coronavirus 1

Dr. Mark Wallace, the director of the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment, is retiring from the agency at the end of the month to “spend more time with family” and to focus on his health, the agency announced Friday.

Weld County

Dr. Mark Wallace

As Wallace prepares to leave the department, the county’s coronavirus response will move fully under the Emergency Operations Center, according to the news release.

The announcement follows a news report by The NoCo Optimist that Wallace warned the Weld County commissioners against allowing businesses — which had been ordered to close due to the coronavirus outbreak — to reopen last month, saying the county had not met the threshold of declining cases.

In contrast to Gov. Jared Polis’ “safer-at-home” phased approach, Weld County’s elected commissioners allowed any businesses to reopen to the public beginning April 27, following the expiration of the statewide stay-at-home order.

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Wallace wrote an email to the commissioners, saying “any relaxation of restrictions should be cautiously staged given the risk of even wider spread of the disease,” according to The NoCo Optimist.

A spokeswoman for Weld County could not immediately be reached for comment.

Weld County has one of the state’s highest infection rates with at least 2,042 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus. There have been 113 deaths from the disease in the county, meaning it has the third highest number of deaths in the state.

Polis previously has called Weld County a coronavirus “hot spot,” and urged a cautious approach to reopening.

Weld County has struggled with large outbreaks at the JBS meatpacking plant in Greeley, where at least 280 employees have tested positive for the disease and seven workers have died. Centennial Healthcare Center, where at least 40 nursing-home residents have the illness and as many as 20 have died, is also located in the county.

Wallace spent five years as Weld County’s public health medical advisor before he became the director of the Department of Public Health and Environment in 2000, according to the news release.

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