July 8, 2020 3:40 a.m.

Travel is being cited as a reason for the steady increase in confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in Douglas County.

A release from the Douglas County COVID-19 Response Team said the majority of recent cases have been directly linked to travel outside the county, and especially those residents who have chosen to travel outside of Oregon.

County Public Health Officer Dr. Bob Dannenhoffer said “every time someone decides to travel or make a stopover in a highly infected COVID-19 area, they run a very high risk of contracting the virus and then bringing it back to Douglas County’.

The release said current data from federal and state health officials shows that traveling and coming into contact with people from other areas does significantly increase the chance of getting and spreading COVID-19. The release said residents “need to assess the risk to you, your family and your local community”.

County Commissioner Chris Boice said “we know it has been difficult, and we know you are anxious to get back to living your life, but we ask you to please continue to be vigilant in helping us to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in our county”.

The release said those who do plan to travel should track the COVID-19 case count for the area they want to go to in order to evaluate the risk. The release said the farther people travel from home, the greater the risk of being exposed to the virus.

Go to www.douglaspublichealthnetwork.org for more information on COVID-19 in Douglas County.