Colorado Gov. Jared Polis talked about the state’s push, including the mandatory mask order, against COVID-19 during his Sunday morning appearance on “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” on ABC.

Co-anchor Martha Raddatz introduced Polis by characterizing Colorado as “on a knife’s edge” with an uptick in cases and hospitalizations.

“You went from saying you didn’t believe a mask mandate was enforceable to issuing a statewide mandate in the span of one week,” she asked the governor. “Even as recently as this past Tuesday, you said you were conflicted on the mandate.”

Polis responded:

“Well, look, I mean, there’s no governor that ran for office or gets up every morning saying, I want people to wear masks. And that’s why Asa had concerns about it. So did I. We don’t want to tell people what to wear or what to do in their lives. This is a free country. That’s what we treasure here.

“What we found in our state is we had about 60% of our state that had a municipal or county mask mandate. And we simply found that they work. Two things: The areas that had mask requirements in our state had 15% to 20% more mask usage and lower spread of the virus.

“So, looking at that data, with the desire to keep the economy open, to maximize the ability to return to school in as safe a way as possible for teachers and for students, the mask mandate was really an easy decision, after I saw that data.”

She later asked Polis if masks have become too politically divisive.

He said he had gotten support from by a Republican mayor of one of the state’s biggest cities – meaning Mayor Mike Coffman of Aurora, the former member of Congress.

“I think what’s important for people is to know is that this is not ideological. It’s not partisan.” Polis said. “It’s science-based. Masks are a ticket to more freedom. It makes it less likely that businesses will be shuttered. It makes it less likely that people will die. It makes it more likely school will return.

“If we care about those things – I know we all do, Democrats, Republicans, independents, Greens, Libertarians, it doesn’t matter — if we care about those things you’re going to take that as a matter of personal responsibility to wear a mask, protect yourself, protect others, protect our economy.”

Watch the entire interview by clicking here.