Cerro Gordo County public health director proud of low COVID-19 case numbers in county

MASON CITY — Cerro Gordo County’s public health director is pleased to see the low number of cases of COVID-19 in the county.

Brian Hanft says Cerro Gordo County has had 2319 individuals tested in the county with a total of 22 lab-confirmed cases identified. “For the most part, our numbers are excessively low. Pottawatomie County has 2850 tests, they have 221 positive cases, they have ten times more than we do. Story County is directly below us, obviously a much higher population, but only 2250 tests and 95 positive cases. Literally four times fewer cases. I really want to emphasize the fact that what we are doing in this county, we should be proud of and happy with where we are at in the total number of cases.”

Hanft says Cerro Gordo County should be proud of where we are at in the total number of cases.  “Some of us sit around and scratch our heads and wonder why are the numbers not higher than what they are as far as positive cases. Again, this is a great success in my opinion. You look at this and say ‘we’re getting some good work done’.”

Hanft is happy the public has bought into his department’s prevention information about COVID-19.  “I really want to stress to the public that we can’t do this without them. By following those social distancing guidelines, by listening to our weekly messages, to reviewing our daily Joint Information Center updates for the public, people have listened. I’m just elated with where we’re at today. Again our work is only getting started. We’re only in inning two of a nine inning game, so we got a long way to go.”

For more information, you can head to the county’s website cghealth.com or the state’s website coronavirus.iowa.gov