Dear fellow citizens,
Christmas is just a few days away and we would like to wish everyone a peaceful holiday season and a good start to the New Year. We would like to remind you of the many people who are working again or are on call to do so during this time. In doing so, they make the traditional time off possible for the majority. In addition to our fire departments and service providers, in view of the current circumstances, these are particularly the employees in the care and healthcare sectors.
That is why we would like to remind you: exactly one year ago, our region gained sad notoriety due to international reports of overloaded hospitals and crematoriums. We were overrun by infections at an alarming rate.
We all wanted to never experience anything like this again. But the current numbers of Covid-19 infections in hospitals from Zittau to Görlitz and Weißwasser are alarmingly high. When the vaccines finally became available, there was growing hope that we would be able to leave the pandemic restrictions behind us. Unfortunately, we now know better. The vaccines are effective, but it was not possible to vaccinate sufficient people at the necessary speed. There were many reasons for this: organizational and communication-related. And so, after a deceptively carefree summer, we are now experiencing another year burdened by many worries. The fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic is once again hitting us particularly hard.
Everyone who has lost loved ones to the pandemic needs our comfort and renewed courage to face life.
This year 2021 has taken its toll on all of us and the strain is not yet easing. We haven't made it yet.
While we understand the disappointment of the renewed restrictions and the strain on every family, every company and every organization, we call on everyone to stick together right now and fight the pandemic in solidarity. We are supporting the temporary measures against the spread of the coronavirus out of a sense of responsibility towards our fellow human beings - and we ask you all to do the same.
With this open letter, we are appealing to everyone in our region:
We would like to expressly thank those people in hospitals, doctors' surgeries and care facilities, the emergency services and ambulance services who have been doing incredible things for us all for months.
Unfortunately, many of the things that make the Advent season and the holidays so special are not possible at the moment. Nevertheless, let us celebrate a peaceful Christmas. With care and caution, we can all enjoy it: after vaccination or testing, being together with our closest family and a few friends, the traditional Christmas dinner, decorated windows and trees in our cities, Christmas music and treats.
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy 2022. Please stay healthy and make sure that others do too.
Yours sincerely,