Mayor Jim Coppinger on Tuesday reminded everyone that the mask mandate will end after Wednesday, and Health Department Administrator Becky Barnes said life returning to “normal” will only happen if younger people begin to be vaccinated.
She said younger groups have the highest rates of infection and are not vaccinated at high rates yet. “Our 21- to 30-year-old age band had 20 percent of all COVID cases, and ages 31 to 40 had 16 percent of positive cases, so these were the two highest age groups for positive cases,” she said.
She said these two groups are vaccinated only at 28 and 33 percent rates respectively. “In many respects, being able to return to normal is in the hands of our younger generation,” Ms. Barnes said.
“Even if you don’t worry about getting COVID or have already gotten it, an episode of COVID can cause you to miss graduation, a wedding or any special occasion. There’s also evidence you can have prolonged effects of COVID even if you had mild or no symptoms. So I would tell our younger population to worry about COVID infections.”
She said no appointments are necessary, and said starting on May 4, hours will be extended until 6 p.m. She said Johnson and Johnson vaccines will begin to be used again, but anyone concerned with those vaccines can get a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine instead.
Another health official said case numbers in the county remain high, and said fully vaccinated people are still recommended to wear a mask in large indoor gatherings.
County Mayor Coppinger said mask recommendations will be updated as more people in the county become vaccinated. “The more people who are vaccinated, the faster we can get back to what we were doing before COVID,” he said.
Mayor Coppinger said that because of the shutdown last year, many small businesses needed to close and remained closed. He said the mask mandate announced on July 10 was never intended to be permanent.
“Because of your participation, we were able to avoid something catastrophic,” Mayor Coppinger said. “We started to be able to open things up and the economy started to come back.
Unemployment dropped from double digits to about 4.7 percent today.” He urged people to get vaccinated, as that is the best way to avoid COVID. He said that if someone is not vaccinated or is vulnerable, they should still avoid large crowds. He said it is now “even more critical” to be vaccinated. “Get vaccinated as quickly as possible,”
Mayor Coppinger said. “I didn’t just get it to protect me, but to also protect those I’m around and I work with and my family members. There’s a lot of good information out there on the vaccine, and it’s safe to do. You can find a lot of bad or untrue information out there.”
The Health Department administrator said Hamilton County has given out 233,000 vaccines, and 130,000 have been administered by Health Department staff. She thanked those workers for their efforts. She also said citizens aged 60 and older are being vaccinated, but are not at 100 percent yet.