On Monday, there wasn’t conclusive evidence that more younger people are testing positive for COVID-19 in Chautauqua County.

By Tuesday, the evidence was a bit more conclusive.

Thirteen new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in the county — 10 of them either teenagers or women in their 20s. While contact tracing is still being performed, anecdotal reports are that some of the positive cases may be linked to a large party on Chautauqua Lake over the July Fourth holiday weekend.

It would appear that many older people have come to accept wearing masks and social distancing even though they don’t really like such practices all that much. While they may not like Gov. Andrew Cuomo and disagree with his business shutdowns, they also accept that wearing masks when social distancing isn’t possible is the law of the land.

It’s a lesson that the young must learn quickly.

The good news in the aftermath of Tuesday’s rash of positive COVID-19 tests is this — none of the cases have resulted in hospitalizations.

The bad news is that further spikes in positive cases risks putting Chautauqua County on the governor’s radar to begin slowing down our economic reopening, and no one needs that to happen right now. Many small businesses have been hurt by the pandemic with many businesses still not allowed to open. If we want to maintain even some small semblance of life as we used to know it, then we must keep our numbers of COVID-19 cases down.

Unfortunately, that means wearing a mask when you can’t social distance. It’s no fun, but it’s necessary.