With spring break over and heading into Easter weekend, the Greene County Public Health Department is urging everyone to take precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Director Becky Wolf says a few weeks ago, the county’s 14-day positivity rate was at its lowest point since the beginning of the pandemic at 1.5-percent. She points out that within the last couple of weeks, the positivity rate has increased to close to six-percent. With being less than two weeks out from spring break, Wolf says there could be more of an increase of positive cases to come.

“So we’re still in that incubation period of 2-14 days after spring break, and it’s your last exposure (to the virus). So like if you had your last contact with somebody on Sunday of spring break, then that’s going to be when we start the clock ticking for 14 days.”

Wolf states she’s happy with how the vaccinations are going in the county, with 19-percent of the population being vaccinated and of that 54-percent of those 65 and older have been fully vaccinated. While she understands that there might be gatherings for church services with the Easter holiday coming up, Wolf encourages people to remain vigilant with the mitigation efforts.

“I’m still going to ask you to please take caution. Please keep wearing your mask, please don’t have blending of get togethers of people that are not in your household, stay away from crowds, do good hand hygiene, (and) be creative because we’re not out of the woods yet.)     

Wolf says for those attending a church service, remember to keep social distancing of at least six feet, don’t shake hands, wear a mask, and urges those of the elderly population that haven’t been vaccinated to consider not attending an Easter church service this year.