Today, our Hancock County Board of Commissioners issued an open letter to all the residents of the county and I believe it provides an exceptional overview of the current situation we are facing together. I encourage you to read the letter below, or in its original form in the attached file.
I am honored to work with each and every one of you and am grateful to live in this wonderful community!
To all Hancock County Residents
The Hancock County Board of Commissioners would like to give an update to the citizens of the county on the Covid-19 outbreak. We in Hancock County have seen our number of positive cases increase, we have seen an increase in the number of those hospitalized and sadly have seen a couple of deaths in our community. We have seen unprecedented collaboration between our hospital, health care workers, emergency management, law enforcement, first responders, local government and most importantly, you the residents of our county. We have seen sacrifices from our local businesses. We have seen our community organizations and churches spring to action. We have all felt the pain and discomfort of a new way of having to do things. For everyone’s efforts, patience, good will and understanding, we would like to say thank you.
We are pleased to be able to report that the efforts and sacrifice seem to be paying dividends in lower than expected positive cases, hospitalizations and most importantly deaths here in Hancock County. While we are not yet past this crisis we felt it important to let the public know that the early actions taken here in the county, the cooperation of all of you in our neighborhoods and communities, and the hard work of our first responders and health professionals has been very effective in flattening the curve and beating back this virus and what was feared would be a much worse outcome.
We are not out of the woods yet. We ask that everyone please continue to practice social distancing and be vigilant in your efforts to protect yourself and those around you. We also ask that you persevere a little longer and rest assured that while our public health professionals and first responders continue to work hard to mitigate this health crisis, local government officials and this board are working with state officials to start the process of getting our communities and economy back to normal. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. We are doing all we can to make sure that we can all transition back into normalcy, get people back to work, get our shops and businesses opened back up and make sure that the needed resources are there to help our residents recover from this massive disruption.
We are all so fortunate to be a part of such good and caring community. We will get through this together and we will be stronger on the other side for it. Thank you for your continued patience and efforts. Please continue to do your part and we will return to normal soon with perhaps a better appreciation for things we’ve all taken for granted… coffee with a friend, gathering with our churches, a hand shake or giving someone a pat on the back.
While we all say a special thanks to all the public safety and health care professionals that have done amazing things to keep us safe through all of this, know that they all wish to pass on a special thank you to you the residents of Hancock County for all the things you are doing and sacrificing that is making that job easier.
John Jessup
Brad Armstrong
Marc Huber
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