Nearly 30 positive COVID-19 cases have been added in Guthrie County in the last three days, but the county public health director credits that with more rapid testing.

Jotham Arber says they have deployed rapid testing in the last week or two, increasing their tests from 15-20 to around 40 per day. Arber says this helps them understand the 14-day average positivity rate, which was close to 20% a few weeks ago in the county and is now sitting around 11%. Arber reflects on local COVID-19 activity in the last couple weeks, “Our case numbers, the numbers of cases that we see, has kind of stayed steady. It’s really that we have been doing more testing which has allowed our positivity rate to come down. I think that I’d also credit it to seeing a lot more face mask wearing in places that we go. So as that rate goes up people are more inclined to wear those face masks. Those students knowing that they can not go into quarantine by wearing those face masks, all of those things combined, the community effort to reduce the number of cases and positivity in people is what we’ll credit this decline to.”

Arber advises that it is not yet time for residents to take their foot off the gas in terms of social distancing and other hygiene practices. Arber hopes that the County can get its positivity rate below 5% so visitor restrictions can be lifted at the county’s long term care facilities and other guidelines can be eased. You can hear more from Arber during the second half of a two-part Let’s Talk Guthrie County program on air and at raccoonvalleyradio.com.