If you are planning a trip to a Johnson County building in the next couple of months, don’t forget to bring along a mask.

Responding to an increasing threat from the Covid delta variant, the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution at its August 12 meeting requiring a mask to be worn by visitors and county employees inside any Johnson County government building. The mandate applies to all, whether vaccinated or not.

The order goes through October 12, at which time the board can extend the mask mandate or end it.

Iowa City instituted a similar mandate for city buildings on August 6, but mayor Bruce Teague declared a civil emergency on August 19 and issued a mask mandate for all of Iowa City, including restaurants and other business. Teague's orders go against a ban of mask mandates signed into state law by Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) in May.

The number of Covid cases in Johnson County has risen from 20 to 150 in the last four weeks, said Jennifer Miller, a disease prevention specialist with Johnson County Public Health. And last week Johnson County, one of the few counties in Iowa that had been in the “substantial risk” rating, moved into the “high risk” ranking by the US Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC).

“The numbers are almost the same as they were a year ago, which is not good,” Miller said.

As of August 13, the positivity rate in Johnson County had risen to 7.52%, hospital admissions were at 28 and active cases totaled 162. Of those 12 and over, 71% were vaccinated.

All counties in eastern Iowa are in the “substantial” or “high risk” categories. Washington County is among those in the “high risk” category with an 18.78% positive rate and 43 cases (195.77 per 100,000), but just one hospital admission. The vaccination rate among those 12 and over is 56.78%.

Johnson County officials are hoping that Covid cases will be falling by the time the mask mandate tentatively ends in October.

“Hopeful that the curve on the delta variant will start to drop,” said Lynn Rose, Assistant Johnson County Attorney, who prepared the resolution.

Johnson County’s mandate does not include the University of Iowa, where professors have been instructed not to require masks for their students.