Orange County residents will have to wait up to three weeks before they find out if cloth face masks will still be required in public as the County begins to reopen bars and movie theaters this Friday. 

County Supervisors continue debating a controversial mask order as a series of scheduled Friday reopenings draw near. 

On Monday, Public Health Officer Nicole Quick abruptly resigned after weeks of pressure from county supervisors to relax or rescind her mask order. Quick refused and ultimately quit. 

On Tuesday, County Health Care Agency Director, Dr. Clayton Chau, who was appointed acting Health Officer, underscored what Quick told supervisors saying  health care agency officials needed to study virus trends for about three weeks to determine if there’s a spike in cases or not. 

That is what would drive relaxation of the mask order, said Chau, who was repeatedly grilled with questions on Tuesday at the public dais by county supervisors.

Supervisor Don Wagner, who’s become a leading voice in the fight against the masks, questioned what benchmarks Chau and Health Care staff are looking at.