COVID-19 cases and positivity rates in Clay County have dropped over the past few weeks. Vaccination rates are going up, too. That’s good news to two health officials in Clay County KMBC spoke with Friday. But, both say winter is coming and people need to be cautious.“Right now, we're trending in the right direction,” Clay County Public Health Director Gary Zaborac said. “We're just not where we need to be yet, as a community, for everything to just go away and everything go back to normal.”Zaborac continues to encourage masking, handwashing, and social distancing, even for vaccinated individuals and in schools.He says he is optimistic about dropping rates of COVID-19. But, he stopped short of predicting any victory over the delta variant or pandemic itself.“Now's not the time to let our guard down,” he said.During the height of the delta variant surge in Clay County in August, the health department reported 377 cases per week. As of Oct. 3, the department reported 191 cases.Testing remains a key help to identify cases and isolate positive individuals.At Excelsior Springs Hospital, workers have run more than 2,500 tests from a daily drive-through clinic since Aug. 24. Administrators noted a 33% positivity rate around that time.“The positivity has been coming down, but we still have a rate of about 11% to 12% and Excelsior Springs, which still says we haven't won the battle yet,” Excelsior Springs Hospital CEO Kristen DeHart said.DeHart said the number of people needing a COVID-19 test has dropped over the past few weeks. She encouraged people to get vaccinated and to get booster shots to help drive down the numbers of COVID-19 cases.“Until everybody gets on board, we're not going to get this thing done,” she said.