Mayor: Your Sacrifices Make a Difference

From Mayor Terry L. Donahue:

Together, we face another critical juncture in this pandemic. Spread in our county is at an all-time high, our healthcare workers are strained, and our hospitals are reaching capacity.

In order to protect our staff so they can continue to provide the critical services to our community — water, public safety, snow-cleared streets and so much more — we are immediately adjusting our operations and staffing plans, as well as reinforcing the need for mask wearing and hand hygiene. We will announce details of operational adjustments over the next few days.

Extra precautions now will save lives. These steps will also ensure our team of dedicated public servants can continue to serve our community.

As we continue to pull together as a community, we’re thankful to see light — and potential vaccines — at the end of the pandemic tunnel. Meanwhile, each one of us must make decisions that will make a dramatic difference in stopping the spread of COVID-19, the third-leading cause of death this year in Iowa.

Even small sacrifices make a difference.

We can skip in-person gatherings, particularly indoors, because every interaction — connected to an exponential network of other’s interactions — is a chance to catch or spread the virus. We must wear masks whenever we do interact with people outside our household, since science shows masks protect others in case the wearer is infected and they also protect the wearer from others who are infected.

We’re all tired of only seeing family over FaceTime, of holding meetings via Zoom and asking our kids to learn and play online. It hurts to adapt holiday traditions, even when it’s to keep the people we love safe and healthy.

We all have a part to play in this. Our personal choices matter, and I urge you to join me in this vigilance as we see this through.

There has been too much pain and sorrow around us. We need everyone’s help in beating this dread disease.

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