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Last week’s development of Mower County moving up to a “high” level of COVID-19 community transmission is a stark reminder that the pandemic isn’t quite done with us yet.

Even though it dropped back into “medium on Thursday, and  while the country and the world is clearly better off than we were, the virus still has the capability to impact the population. The situation is also compounded by the news that hospitals are being strained by the influx of RSV and flu hospitalization.

Though cases of all three are down and appear to be easing somewhat, IC bed availability in hospitals for adults increased according to a story from Minnesota Public Radio.

These things taken together would indicate a need for increased caution. While there are few requirements, we urge you to still mask if ever feeling sick and that you get up-to-date on vaccination: both COVID and flu.

According to the Minnesota Department of Health last week 72% of Minnesotans have at least one vaccine dose, however, only 19.8% are completely up to date on their COVID vaccinations.

This needs to get better, otherwise the chances of more people needing to be placed into the hospital will stay level or continue to go up.

The last thing we need to do is go back and put further pressures on taxed healthcare workers who may still be feeling the pinch of the COVID-19 pandemic.