Page last updated on September 7, 2021 at 1:22 pm
Hello, it's Mayor John Hamilton. It's Monday, May 3rd, 2021. Just giving a COVID update to the community. Thanks to those who pay attention to this. So the short answer is we're still really in an uncertain period. We have seen a flattening of curves in a good way in the hospitalizations and the positivity rate and the case numbers are not increasing the way they were over the last six weeks. We don't know if that's temporary or permanent. It's a good thing that they've kind of hit a plateau and paused, but it's still too high and of great concern.
The key of course is vaccinations. Please, those who get vaccinated, we need you to talk to others. I'm now fully vaccinated for two weeks. Many in our community are, but not nearly enough. So we need to continue to encourage all to get vaccinated. In addition, continuing to comply with the restrictions. If you're in crowded places, if you're unvaccinated, you need to keep masking, keep distancing, protecting yourself, even if you're fully vaccinated, the CDC guidelines are really important to watch, but they do let you meet with other fully vaccinated people, and that's one of the great things about getting fully vaccinated.
So a couple of really important notes of caution or concern. One, Indiana is among the slowest states in terms of looking at our total vaccinations. We're near the bottom of the pile of states in terms of how many of our people, what percent have been fully vaccinated. So that's of serious concern. Second, also at the state level, we see a much slower rate of daily vaccinations. The seven-day average of how many people are getting shots is down significantly in the last couple of weeks as fewer people are showing up every day to get shots, even though we're not halfway to where we need to get for herd immunity.
So these both are concerning signs and indicating that we may have trouble getting to that high level of herd vaccination. We're continuing as an employer in the city to offer a $100 wellness benefit to all of our employees. We've had nearly 300 qualify for that so far. I would encourage all employers, institutions in the city, community to think about how you can encourage your employees or your members to get vaccinated. That is how we're going to get out of this and it's worth it to get that number up to 70%, 80%. That's how we're going to end this pandemic.
So still a concern. We're going to continue to monitor the rules and behavior restrictions that we think are so important. We're retaining them at 15 for social gatherings in the city, but please get vaccinated and talk to those around you about getting vaccinated. If you have the chance to put policies in place to encourage that, I hope you will. That kind of leadership and helping move us forward will make a huge difference. Thanks. I'll talk to you again soon.
