By Christina Lieffring
Reporter
The Journal Times
With Mother’s Day coming up on Sunday, Racine Mayor Cory Mason is warning that with COVID-19 continuing to spread and the number of cases continuing to grow, now is not the time for a large family gathering.
“It’s really, really important that you maintain social distancing, even for Mother’s Day,” Mason said.
During a Facebook Live address on Friday, Mason said that one reason for the spike in COVID-19 cases the last few weeks was Easter holiday gatherings and asked people to be mindful of that when planning for Mother’s Day.
‘What’s the big deal?’
The Racine Health Department, as part of its COVID-19 mitigation efforts, interviews individuals with COVID-19 to learn more about how the virus is spreading and who may have been exposed.
“A lot of these cases, according to our public health administrator (Dottie-Kay Bowersox) were from family who went to large events on Easter Sunday, who didn’t go to church per se but thought, ‘Well I still want to get together with my family and my aunts and my uncles …’,” Mason said. “Its really important we keep that message going: large gatherings result in spikes of coronavirus cases.”
This week, Mason said, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases surpassed 400 and the city is nowhere near flattening the curve. And many of those infected probably assumed it would be safe to gather with family.
“You might think, ‘Well it’s just 30 or 40 of my family’ or ‘It’s just 20 of my family, what’s the big deal?'” he said. “If you’re in close proximity to each other, if you’re not doing what you need to do maintain the social distancing and maintain the social distancing bubble you have with your immediate household, you do risk spreading coronavirus. So, please be thoughtful about that as you think about how to celebrate Mother’s Day this weekend.”
Mason acknowledged that it’s not easy to ask people not to gather, especially on Easter nor on Mother’s Day and other holidays. Mason said he hasn’t seen his own mother in the midst of the pandemic and that his children were looking forward to celebrating with his wife, Rebecca Mason.
“That’s what we love to do and that’s how we celebrate family … we certainly have special events that we would like to do with our moms,” Mason said. “If you want to make sure that mom’s still around next year, it might not be the time to have a big extended family get-together and risk exposing your loved ones to coronavirus.”
Originally published by The Journal Times, 05.08.2020, republished under non-indexable fair use.