LOS ANGELES - An Idaho pastor has been in intensive care for COVID-19 after previously speaking out against government enforcement of mandatory mask wearing.“I am a no-masker personally,” pastor Paul Van Noy said during his service at Candlelight Christian Fellowship on July 22. “I don’t want to be told I have to wear a mask.”Van Noy encouraged his congregation to pray that the city council would not pass a mask mandate.Coronavirus cases rapidly increased in Idaho in July.
On July 15, the state reported 691 new cases statewide. Northern Idaho’s Panhandle Health District voted in favor of a mask mandate in Kootenai County, where Candlelight Christian Fellowship is located, on July 24.