With the anticipated peak of COVID-19 coming to Iowa, health officials are reminding area businesses to adhere to the recommendations and guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control to prevent the spread of the virus.

Greene County Public Health Director Becky Wolf says businesses should implement measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 by practicing social distancing, reviewing procedures to identify ways for social separation to happen, provide hand sanitizer for staff and customers, stagger breaks for staff to reduce interaction and encourage employees to wear masks. Wolf also encourages businesses to limit the number of customers.

“That is something that’s really important because the more people we have in one place, it’s difficult to have social distancing maintained and that increases our risk of exposure.”

As for customers, Wolf strongly encourages people to wear face masks when entering a business. She notes she has not been seeing that for lots of individuals where social distancing is hard to maintain.

“I don’t know, maybe they feel self-conscious about it, maybe they don’t think it’s really all that important. But if you’re going to go into a business you need to protect yourself and everybody else, and start getting into the habit of wearing a mask.”

Wolf believes everyone is doing a good job of adhering to the guidelines from the CDC, but reminds people to be more vigilant as the peak arrives in the state.