Hold on to your masks in Larimer County, for now, at least.

While neighboring Weld County announced Thursday that it is ditching all COVID restrictions, Larimer County will take a different approach.

The Larimer County Department of Health & Environment announced in a press release that the county mask requirement in indoor settings was extended for the next 30 days starting on Friday (April 16).

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The statewide restrictions ended Friday, and now, individual counties have the authority to choose their own restrictions.

Larimer County will mostly align local restrictions with what was Level Blue of Colorado’s Dial 3.0. Many "Level Up" certified businesses have already been operating at Level Blue.

“It’s possible we’re only about a month away from removing all COVID-19 restrictions, but we need everyone’s help to cross the finish line by continuing to wear a mask, social distance, and get vaccinated as soon as possible,” said Public Health Director Tom Gonzales in the press release.

“Due to increased vaccination efforts, we are confident this 30 day order will give our community time to begin to see significant and sustained declines in disease transmission and hospitalizations that are necessary to end the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Larimer County has seen an increase in COVID cases over the past few weeks.

Earlier this week,  Larimer County Department of Health and Environment reported the one-week case rate across Larimer County increased from 103.7 to 227.2 cases per 100,000 residents. That's more than doubling over the last three and a half weeks.

The positivity rate of COVID-19 testing in Larimer County also rose from 4.8% to 7.5% over the last two weeks.

LOOK: Answers to 30 common COVID-19 vaccine questions

While much is still unknown about the coronavirus and the future, what is known is that the currently available vaccines have gone through all three trial phases and are safe and effective. It will be necessary for as many Americans as possible to be vaccinated in order to finally return to some level of pre-pandemic normalcy, and hopefully these 30 answers provided here will help readers get vaccinated as soon they are able.

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