Governor Kim Reynolds signed a proclamation this week permitting more businesses and other entities to reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Adair and Guthrie County Emergency Management Agency and its health partners inform the public that it’s not yet time to let their figurative, and literal, guards down.

The first three COVID-19 associated deaths in Guthrie County were announced this week, with over 35 confirmed cases and an outbreak at the Lakeside Village assisted living facility in Panora. Adair and Guthrie County Emergency Management Coordinator Bob Kempf says residents should take personal responsibility for their health such as wearing face masks in public, and just because you may have already tested negative for the virus, doesn’t mean you can’t still contract it, “Let’s say I get tested today and I stop at Casey’s and get my regular burrito in the morning or I go to the grocery store or I go to Orscheln’s, or somehow, some way I felt good in my social distancing but somehow, some way someone around the corner coughs towards me or somehow I felt okay so I didn’t put my mask on, I do get exposed. Well I may never show symptoms but just because I tested negative today, having had that happen to me, if you tested me again in five days I might be positive then.”

To protect yourself from unknowingly spreading the virus to those with underlying medical conditions or the elderly population, Kempf and Guthrie County Public Health urges all residents to consider wearing a face mask when practical if staying at least six feet away from others is not possible, stay home when even mildly ill, and anyone who is at high risk for more severe illness due to COVID-19 should also continue to stay home.