As of Thursday, Governor Kim Reynolds has not issued a statewide shelter-in-place order against the 2019 novel coronavirus.

Greene County Public Health Director Becky Wolf praises the governor’s efforts against the virus and keeping Iowans as safe as possible, while not completely shutting down the state.

“I do feel like the governor has done a great job as far as doing increment steps of additional restrictions or closures, (and) getting the similar effect (of a shelter-in-place). I think Greene County as a whole has done a great job of paying attention to what we need to do.”

Iowa House District 47 Representative Phil Thompson of Jefferson echoes Wolf’s sentiment and believes they made the right decisions as a legislative body to give Reynolds authority to spend some of the state’s additional revenue in places that needed it the most from the beginning of when the virus entered the state.

“I really am impressed with her timeline, she’s been well ahead of a lot of other states, and she’s been decisive. I think the businesses that she’s closed have made sense at the time. At the very beginning people were questioning how we’re slowing down the economy? And the answer was that this was really serious and we had to get well ahead of it. She’s going to continue to monitor this (and) she’s got great people surrounding her.”

Dr. Laurie Connolly with the Greene County Family Practice Clinic adds, Iowa benefitted from being in the Midwest and had more time to prepare for the virus than the coastal states, which has led to good decisions from the governor so far.