As omicron cases surge, area health departments are reminding people to take precautions to prevent the spread of the virus.
Jackson County Health Department Administrator Bart Hagston said people need to be diligent about wearing masks, social distancing, and staying home when sick.
He said unvaccinated people, or those who are not up-to-date on their vaccine, need to remember to follow the full quarantine guidelines from the CDC if they're exposed to COVID.
"You need to quarantine at home for five days, and then an additional five days, make sure you're following strict mask-wearing around others," he said. "So we like to think of it as the five plus five, I think that message is getting lost on a lot of people, they're just thinking of the five days at home and forgetting about the mask wearing on the back end of it, so we like to call it the five plus five."
Hagston said that on the week of January 2nd, his department saw an increase of more than three times more cases than at any other point in the pandemic.
