Page last updated on September 7, 2021 at 1:10 pm
Hello, it's Mayor John Hamilton. It's Monday, June 28, 2021. Just a quick update to the public on matters in Bloomington, particularly COVID-related.
First, we're continuing to work on the aftermath of the flood from 10 days ago or so. Appreciate all the help everybody's been giving from merchants and households and neighborhood associations and nonprofits and governments working together. Thank you so much as we work to recover from that flash flood, and we'll continue to collaborate on that. And if you have questions or damage from the flood, please reach out through 2-1-1 or the County Emergency System to do that.
The COVID information is not a bunch of new things. We are still slogging our way, trying to get out of this pandemic. We are not out of the woods. We've kind of said, maybe we see the edge of the woods. We're not positive yet. There are still areas of concern, and there are people still getting very sick from COVID. We had another case in our city employment, getting sick from COVID or testing positive last week. And there are still people in the hospital, 100s of them. And there are still people dying from COVID in our community and in our state and country.
There are variants that are here. Delta and Delta Plus are of real concern. But overall, the numbers of cases, the number of hospitalizations, the number of deaths are continuing to show us moving in the right direction overall. We need to keep doing what we're doing. Vaccinations, vaccinations, vaccinations are how we get out of this. They're safe. They're effective. They're protecting us. Please get vaccinated. Thank you if you have been vaccinated.
Over 500 city employees have now signed up for the $100 wellness benefit, and IU and IU Health have made very strong demands and statements about the importance of that. And I hope you all will get vaccinated when it's time, which is now. There are a dozen-plus sites locally to get vaccinated. You don't have to pay for it. Please, please do that. That's what's going to get us out of this pandemic.
We are working our way through the emergency orders from the state. We expect to conclude this week. The eviction protections have been extended through July next month, but then unlikely after that. So there are going to be some real challenges in the community as we work together on that.
I look forward to continuing to work with all of our fellow government agencies and in city government, and all of our partners to help us move forward. We'll keep doing our press conferences every other Friday in July and August as we head into the fall. And we are very much hopeful that this fall will feel much more normal. The signals are pretty good. Keep doing what you're doing.
Take care of yourself. Please get vaccinated. Talk to somebody if you're concerned about it. Talk to your doctor. Talk to your friends. Talk to people, scientists, health professionals about how important it is.
We're making progress. That's the update for this week, and I'll talk to you soon. Thanks.
