CLARION — The number of positive COVID-19 tests in Wright County has increased from six to 20 as of Monday morning, Wright County Emergency Management announced on Monday.

The additional 14 cases come from an effort to increase testing at large employers in the county, according to Wright County Supervisor Karl Helgevold.

In total, as of Monday, 716 Wright County residents have been tested for COVID-19, with the 20 positive results being 2.8 percent of the tested population, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. The IDPH also reports that four Wright County individuals have recovered from COVID-19. The breakdown of what age ranges the individuals fall into was not available by press time.

A testing effort at Prestage Foods of Iowa, outside Eagle Grove, in late April resulted in 25 positive COVID-19 results in employees from seven counties, including Wright.

Helgevold said the county’s attention to testing at other large employers is an attempt to be “proactive” in identifying individuals with the illness before they can spread it even further. Testing will continue through this week and into next.

“We’re going through these businesses now,” Helgevold said, not identifying which businesses are being tested. “Some of these (positives) are asymptomatic. We’d rather err on the side of caution and get these tests done for these businesses before it becomes a problem.”

The county supervisor said that the testing is not being done in businesses in any one particular spot, but rather scattered across the county. He said that while there may be an “uptick” in positive results through this testing, it does not necessarily mean there is an outbreak at a business.

“As these positives come back, then we do the contact tracing to figure out where they have been and who they live with to make sure those people haven’t been exposed or need tested,” Helgevold said.

With most of the state now opened up again, Helgevold reminds residents that it’s still important to continue to follow prevention guidelines to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“We just need to keep the social distancing, keep up with the good practices,” he said. “It is out there and you see a lot of areas where the numbers are coming down, but we’re seeing our numbers tick up. We just need to be prudent and not let our guard down.”