“ ... it’s important now more than ever that we strive to reach herd immunity.””

It’s ‘fair’ to say it was a great weekend in the region. There was no shortage of fun activities, food and friendship that has been ushered in by fair season. The Wayne County Fair in Honesdale, PA and Grahamsville Little World’s Fair have officially wrapped up for the year, and the Delaware County Fair kicked off yesterday and runs through Saturday, August 21. Also, many celebrated the 52nd anniversary of Woodstock at various events in and around Bethel as well.

These types of functions have been missed. But while we have enjoyed them, the question is now how much longer will we have the luxury of them taking place? The answer lies with us, as we must stay vigilant as the county’s COVID-19 positive cases and hospitalizations are once again on the rise (see front page story).

We respect everyone’s right to choose whether or not to vaccinate themselves or their children. However, we join with local health officials in encouraging those who are still unvaccinated to do so. As Public Health Director Nancy McGraw stated, only about one percent of fully vaccinated people are dealing with a “breakthrough” COVID-19 infection in Sullivan County, so the vaccines are doing their job.

With schools set to reopen in September, and many younger children not yet of age to be vaccinated, it’s important now, more than ever, that we strive to reach herd immunity, especially with the new and more contagious Delta variant rearing its ugly head.

We don’t know about you, but we enjoyed the respite from quarantine mandates, and we’d like that to once again be the norm. But until we get our vaccine rate up  – currently a little less than 50 percent of our county’s residents are fully vaccinated – masks, and disruptions to our work and social life will continue. Not to mention more deaths to those most vulnerable.

Let’s protect our neighbors and loved ones.

Way to go volunteers

We’ve had a lot of coverage in the paper recently of the Hope Not Handcuffs program. It was announced recently that the District Attorney’s Office, Sullivan County Drug Task Force and local law enforcement agencies are partnering together and bringing this program to our backyard.

It was great to hear that three people, as of the Public Safety and Law Enforcement Committee meeting earlier this month, had reached out for help through the program locally. It was also amazing to see that 18 people had signed on to be volunteers for the program.

Sullivan County people always step up when asked to help others, and that’s an encouraging thing to see.

If you have some time to spare, please consider becoming an “angel” for someone battling addiction.

Together we are not only helping that one person, but our community as a whole, as not just our region, but this country have been losing the battle against the opioid epidemic for quite some time.

To become an angel, visit https://tricountycommunitypartnership.org/hope-not-handcuffs.