Page last updated on December 6, 2021 at 12:56 pm
Hi, it's Mayor John Hamilton. It's Monday, December 6th, 2021, just an update to the public about the pandemic. So these are challenging times. We continue to be concerned about the numbers that we see. This pandemic, which has now claimed 220 lives in our county, 17,000 lives in our state, nearly 800,000 lives in our country and 5 million across the planet, is still with us. I'm reminded of the CDC Director, Rochelle Walensky, who many months ago said we just need to stay humble when we're dealing with this virus and the response.
Here we are in month 22, since the pandemic was declared a world pandemic. We still see rising cases, rising hospitalizations. Of course, there's concern about Omicron. This new variant that we know is in the United States. It's likely in Indiana and may well be in our community. We just don't know it yet, but we have significant concerns about that.
So look, this is not complicated. There's no reason to be fearful. There is a reason to take action. We will continue to protect our community based upon the best science that we have, which will continue to counsel masking, physical distancing and, most of all, vaccinations. That is what we know will help us. We're going to be living with this virus. We don't want to be dying from it and vaccinations are the most important thing we can do to reduce the spread and to keep all of ourselves safe and our families and our community and our coworkers and everybody else.
We continue to have cases inside city government. We're going to continue to incentivize and encourage and follow the new federal safety guidelines to encourage vaccinations or frequent testing. I do hope you will all pay attention to the science. Thank you so much, all of you who are vaccinated. Please get boosted if you're within six months of your vaccination. Please talk to each other about the importance of vaccination. We're worried about the new indoor time that many of us will spend as the weather gets colder. Family gatherings, it’s very important to keep safe.
If you have questions, reach out to our office. Again, stay humble. This virus is still here. We very much expect Omicron is going to get here. We don't know a lot about it yet. There’s a lot more to learn. We'll keep you posted. In the meantime, vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate, and get boosted.
So that's the update for this week. Hang in there and hope all's well. Take care.
