(Radio Iowa) — Deaths from COVID-19 in Iowa surpassed 700 over the weekend, while also reaching 500-thousand deaths globally. With new cases on the rise in some Iowa counties after having leveled off earlier, concerns are growing among health officials. Sam Jarvis, spokesman for the Johnson County Health Department in Iowa City, says they’re seeing a spike in new daily cases, with the majority in people between 18 and 25 years old.

“Certainly, as things are getting less restrictive, people I think are operating under the assumption that COVID might be over and it’s certainly not,” Jarvis says. “It’s still within our community and certainly in the state and the nation.” Nola Aigner, with the Polk County Health Department in Des Moines, says the county’s average daily case count has decreased this month. Aigner fears the trend could easily reverse if Iowans don’t take precautions, like wearing face coverings and social distancing.

“That’s what worries us because we know as a state, we’re behind,” Aigner says. “We were one of the last to peak and so that makes us very worried.” A sudden surge in cases in the Quad Cities is occurring among teenagers and young adults. Doctor Louis Katz, Medical Director of the Rock Island County Health Department in Rock Island, Illinois, says too many people are ignoring the advice they’ve heard so many times already, to wear a mask, wash your hands, keep social distancing, and stay home.

“You need to look at every asymptomatic person in the community as a loaded gun,” Katz says. “We don’t allow people to point loaded guns at other people and we shouldn’t be in public venues where social distancing is impossible or difficult, without a mask.” Katz says in April and May, the average age of infected people in the Quad Cities was 59, but during the last week it’s dropped to 29. Amy Thoreson, deputy director of the Scott County Health Department in Davenport, says 40 new cases were reported in the county last Thursday, and more possible infections are still being investigated.

“The positive case reports kept coming in like winnings on a slot machine,” Thoreson says. “We have never seen anything like it and I have colleagues who have been here for over 40 years.” State health officials say Iowans between the ages of 18 and 40 make up the largest and fastest-growing group reporting new COVID-19 infections. Dr. Katz says, “This is not the second wave. This is just the first wave getting worse as we have undertaken reopening.”

(By Natalie Krebs, Iowa Public Radio and Herb Trix, WVIK, Rock Island)