Hamilton County is starting to see an uptick in COVID-19 cases with 26 positive cases as of Tuesday morning.

During the weekly COVID-19 briefing held by the Hamilton County Board of Supervisors, Shelby Kroona, Hamilton County Public Health administrator said that 10 of the case have recovered and none of the cases are hospitalized at this time.

“We are continuing to see an increase in positive cases and that will continue,” she said.

Kroona said Wright County, which has seen a dramatic increase in cases, is continuing to test in agricultural businesses. Kroona said there are several families that reside in Hamilton County and work in Wright County in the ag businesses.

“We will be doing (testing at) another large business in Wright County over three days this week, so we should continue to see increasing numbers, probably hitting us again next weekend,” she said. Kroona is also the administrator for Wright County Public Health.

She cautioned area residents to avoid congregating in large groups, to continue social distancing, washing hands and wearing face coverings.

“With some of the contract tracing I did this weekend, I discovered that there were a number of bonfires that have been happening with large numbers of teenagers. We do have some positive cases of young people in Hamilton County,” she said.

Kroona explained how the virus is spread through large gatherings.

“When you visit with somebody who is outside your own home, they bring along everyone they have had contact with for the past 14 days to the meeting or the party or the bonfire.

“It may be only 10 people attending, but those people may have been in contact with 20 or 30 other people over the course of two weeks. You then have all of those germs at that bonfire,” she explained.

The earliest that a person could be tested for COVID-19 is 5 to 7 days after exposure.

“However, if you have an exposure to someone who is positive, you have to isolate for a minimum of 10 days,” she said. “So, you can see that if you go to a large event and someone tests positive – alot people have to isolate.”

Across Iowa, 135,307 people have been tested with more than 117,000 testing negative and 17,703 testing positive. There are 9,791 people who have recovered and 478 deaths, according to coronavirus.iowa.gov. In Hamilton County, 943 people have been tested with 26 positive cases.