Page last updated on September 7, 2021 at 1:02 pm
Hello, it's me here, John Hamilton. It's Monday, August 23rd, 2021. Quick update to the public about things pandemic-related. We're just in a serious surge. I really am sorry to have to report this. There's a dangerous surge going on. It's not getting better, it's getting worse. We're seeing serious statistical indications of how bad this is. Including, for example, locally, our case rate, the number of people who are diagnosed has about tripled in the last few weeks. Hospitalizations locally here in this region have gone up about five-fold in the last several weeks. And are numbers we are sorry to see.
We are doing better in this county than the state as a whole. The state has seen much worse numbers. Their case numbers are up about 10-fold. Their hospitalizations are up similarly. Death rates at the state have more than doubled, as we see the daily impact of this Delta variation. Delta variant is just tearing through our state, our community, the country, and it's sending people to the hospital.
Almost everybody who's getting very sick or dying is unvaccinated. It's very rare otherwise. The vast majority of people who are getting seriously sick are those who did not choose to get the vaccine, or potentially some who cannot take the vaccine. All of us who can take the vaccine, really I just can't urge you more strongly how important it is. The Pfizer vaccine was formally, fully approved today for all, as it was emergency use before. That's not a surprise. These are very safe, very effective vaccines.
I hope you will consider doing that if you haven't. Thank all of you who do get vaccinated, have gotten vaccinated. And please talk to each other about how important this is to protect our kids, to protect our economy, to protect our community. I'll hope you do that. In the meantime we have to keep masking up, that's a local order. It's what will protect us in addition to the vaccine. And the numbers are just really concerning.
I would never have predicted 18 months ago that this is where we would be in August of 2021, but it is where we are. And we have to deal with reality, and what the science tells us, and what the medical folks tell us. So please keep taking care of yourself and each other with the vaccine and with masking.
This week we will be focused each evening on the budget preparations for 2022 with public hearings in front of the city council if you're interested in that, as we think ahead for that year. Available from 6 PM on each night. But in the meantime, please, please, please pay attention to this pandemic and the threat it poses to all of us. To our schools and economy, jobs, each other. So thanks for taking care of each other and do the right thing.
