Page last updated on September 7, 2021 at 1:44 pm
Hi, this is Mayor John Hamilton. It's Monday, April 26th, sharing this news with the public. Thanks to those who follow this. Quickly, we continue to be very concerned locally here about the pandemic going in the wrong direction generally over the last four to six weeks on cases, on positivity, on hospitalizations. We're concerned about that. If you watch the national news, you know that the background level of infection is too high. That's true locally as well.
Getting the vaccine is how we're going to get out of this. We are only, not even, halfway toward where we need to get in terms of the number of people getting that vaccine. Please, if you have not been vaccinated, please do so. If you're concerned about it, talk to your healthcare provider, talk to your friends, talk to your neighbors. If you've been vaccinated and know people who are hesitant, please talk to them. I'm fully vaccinated now. It feels good. It's how we're going to get out of this.
We're going to continue to look at how we can incentivize people. We've had 220 city employees apply for the hundred-dollar wellness benefit. I hope more employers might consider encouraging their employees, or institutions, their members, to get vaccinated because that is how we're going to get through this pandemic, and we are not out of it yet. Masking and
distancing are critically important.
Just last week we had a 400-500 person party take place off-campus in a student-oriented apartment building. That's a terrible, bad choice. We're pursuing what discipline we can with IU's help on that. People are not behaving as if this is still a pandemic, but it is. So I don't want to be the harbinger of really negative news, but we could be in this for a long time still if we don't buckle down and get the vaccines done. So we expect the access will be opening up to vaccines. So please, please, please get the shot in the arm, that will help us all be safer. If you have questions, again, talk to your health provider. You're welcome to reach out to our office as well.
Last note this week, I just want to mention, if you're interested, there's a city survey on the street. We do a scientific reach out to 3000 households for a scientific sample, but we're also now open that survey to anybody who wants to respond. We welcome your views. You can check out our website, the city website. You can find the survey there, take it online. I encourage you to do that to let us know what you think about the city.
So I'll keep in touch with you about this. It is a sobering time to remember here in April, 14 months after we started, we're still in this pandemic and we need to take important steps to get out. Thank you for all you're doing, and I'll be happy to talk to you. Call our office if you have questions. Otherwise, I'll talk to you next week.
