Greene County Public Health is reporting an uptick in the amount of COVID-19 cases.

Director Becky Wolf says since April 1st, there have been 20 new positive cases of COVID-19 and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the community spread of the virus is now considered to be “high.” Wolf points out Greene County is the only county in Iowa with a “high” transmission rate, Guthrie County is second as a “moderate” transmission level and the rest of the state is considered “low.”

Wolf reminds everyone to be cautious whenever the levels of covid cases increase to be thinking about how you can do your part to bring the transmission rate back down.

“So if we start seeing rates go up and be kind of thinking, ‘Okay do I want to go out into the public and an indoor area where there’s a lot of people, and I don’t know their vaccination status?’ We still encourage you to wear a mask, if you’re not certain about something or it makes you feel more comfortable. There shouldn’t be masking shaming going on. I really think that our future is going to be kind of these ebbs and flows of taking precautions when we need to and having a higher awareness of how we can keep ourselves protected.”    

Wolf adds other preventative measures include staying home if sick, practice social distancing and good hand hygiene and getting a vaccine or a booster shot. She says overall goals are to prevent spread of the virus, hospitalizations, severe complications and prevent death.