In just over a week, Greene County’s COVID-19 positivity rate has more than doubled, which has caused public health officials great concern.

Greene County Public Health Director Becky Wolf tells Raccoon Valley Radio on October 30th, Greene County’s positivity rate for the previous 14-days was 5.8-percent with 204 cases to 18.4-percent on Monday with 305 cases. Wolf uses the term “red zone” as what the White House Coronavirus Task Force has used to describe Iowa at times. Wolf believes Greene County is in a red zone, meaning there is an outbreak of the virus and it is a threat to the County.

“That needs to be paid attention to. And people need to remember that if we’re in red, we have the possibility of becoming even more infected with cases. We’ve got to pull back and do what we’re supposed to be doing as far as staying home and don’t be going places as often, and protecting your families.”

     Wolf says the majority of the 152 active COVID-19 cases in the County, through contact tracing, they found the infected individuals were from gatherings where people didn’t wear a mask or stay at least six feet from each other when interacting for longer than 15 minutes. 

“There’s no way of getting around this, unless we bite the bullet, rip off the band-aid and start wearing masks when we’re outside our homes, and doing the other things that we need to do to protecting ourselves and others. There’s no other way of getting around this.”

Wolf urges everyone to remember to wear a mask when in public settings, avoiding crowds where masks are not required, avoid touching face, washing hands frequently, keep at least six feet from other people, and cough into your elbow. She adds, if you start to feel subtle symptoms that could be COVID-19 related, stay home and isolate yourself from others for at least 48 hours before your first symptoms occurred.