Natrona County Health Officer Calls For Statewide Mask Mandate

"I don't want to make people mad. I'm not interested in taking away anyone's rights," Dowell said in the video. "But I'm sitting here in a health emergency watching people in this county die."

November 16, 20202 min read

Dowell screencap
(Cowboy State Daily Staff)

Natrona County Public Health Officer Dr. Mark Dowell called for Gov. Mark Gordon and other city and county officials to create mask mandates, as coronavirus cases skyrocket in Natrona County and Wyoming.

Dowell posted an 8-minute video to his business’ Facebook page on Sunday evening, making comments about the evening’s football games.

“It was a wild week,” Dowell said in the video. “I spent a lot of time working on COVID things, doing a lot of soul searching, trying to figure out what to do with the situation.”

He noted that seven people died in Natrona County in the last week and that 60% of patients in just one nursing home in the county had the coronavirus. Hospitals across the state, but Natrona County particularly, are beginning to fill with sick patients.

Meanwhile, many medical practitioners across the state are now infected with coronavirus and many schools in the state are seeing cases in students, he said.

The massive increase of cases has opened Dowell’s eyes, he said, prompting him to call for a mask mandate from both Natrona County officials and Gordon, who has resisted implementing one. Gordon did say during a news conference on Friday that stricter coronavirus health orders were coming, but didn’t say when.

“I don’t want to make people mad. I’m not interested in taking away anyone’s rights,” Dowell said in the video. “But I’m sitting here in a health emergency watching people in this county die.”

The goal of the mask mandate is to keep businesses and schools open, he added.

Dowell is one of many county health officers across the state who have called on Gordon to implement a mandate statewide.

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