Greene County recently eclipsed the century mark for positive COVID-19 cases.

As of Tuesday there were 109 cases of the virus, compared to just 42 cases on August 10th. Greene County Public Health Director Beck Wolf says there have been 24 positive cases reported in the last 14 days. She explains what are the leading causes for such a large jump in the amount of cases.

“We do believe that there have been a few cases that are related to gatherings, like birthday parties and celebrations, things like that, we’ve had a segment of cases related to that. And then we’ve also seen an uptick shortly after the school year got started.”

As of Tuesday, the Greene County High School continues to report zero cases of the virus, whereas the elementary and middle schools have been impacted. Wolf explains whether or not the high school is doing things differently than the other two buildings.

“I don’t know if they are really doing anything differently, but the thing that you have to remember is we’re still very early in the game with our newest cases. Remember that some families have kids in all three buildings. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I’m expecting cases to start popping up in the high school also.”

Wolf reminds everyone to continue to follow the preventative guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Iowa Department of Public Health against the virus.