This is Mayor Rachel L. Proctor from the City of DeSoto reaching out to you concerning the recent increases in new COVID-19 cases in our nation and throughout our region.
Early Tuesday evening the Dallas County Public Health Committee elevated its color coded COVID-19 threat level to red, which reflects “High Community Risk for COVID-19 Transmission.” It had previously been ranked in the orange level reflecting a “Moderate Community Risk.”
We have also been following developments from across the country reflecting a resurgence of COVID-19 case numbers due to the rapid rise of the omicron variant.
One particularly distressing impact of this viral spread is the national surge in hospitalizations, especially among children being hospitalized for COVID-19.
When hospital emergency rooms and critical care facilities become filled to capacity with COVID patients, patients with other life-threatening conditions such as heart attacks, auto accidents, and other serious and urgent health needs are put at risk with very limited access to treatment. Keeping our emergency rooms and critical care facilities up and running with available capacity is in the vital interests of everyone around us. Together we can limit the spread of COVID by continuing to follow medically proven protocols that we are all familiar with.
Remember that medical personnel that we rely on to treat COVID-19 and other patients have been putting themselves at risk since the start of the pandemic, including continued physical and mental exhaustion. They have done more than anyone could possibly ask.
We owe it to them, our loved ones, and our neighbors to take medically established precautions available to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Foremost on this list is getting vaccinated.
Millions of our countrymen have safely received COVID-19 vaccines since they received FDA authorization. These vaccines were developed using proven scientific methods and have saved countless people from serious and life-threatening illness. I hope that you and your age-appropriate children will choose to be vaccinated for your safety, your family’s safety, and the security of our hospital system.
According to data from the CDC, unvaccinated people are roughly six times more likely to test positive than vaccinated people, nine times more likely to be hospitalized, and 14 times more likely to die from COVID-related complications. We want every DeSoto resident to be safe.
Please try to avoid large crowds, and if you are going to be at a large gathering, please wear a mask, preferably an N-95 or high quality KN-95 mask which are readily available. Maintain a safe social distance from others, and frequently wash or sanitize your hands.
Please consider the need to bring large numbers of people together, including options such as rescheduling or employing virtual technology to allow for safe participation. And please consider your plans for New Year’s Eve and how to help prevent additional spread.
We will continue to monitor the situation nationally and locally, and share new COVID information with our residents as it becomes available.
In the mean time we encourage all of our residents to exercise due caution and to follow the medically proven precautions that are designed solely to keep us safe as we live through the Pandemic.
