COVID-19 a year later

A year ago we talked to four people in El Dorado About the Pandemic and how it was effecting them and the businesses they associated with. We have revisited them.

Paula Gibbs – Manager El Dorado Springs Woods Supermarket. “Things have gotten better. There are still outages. There are still things we don’t get every week. There are customers that want beanie weenies and we haven’t had them for sometime. The manufactures can’t keep up.

Good news, we are getting canning supplies next week.

Before the pandemic were had 10 – 12 grocery pick-ups a week.  We’re now averaging 100 – 120 get every week.

We won’t take down the shields in front of the cash registers anytime soon.

Jackson Tough – Executive Director of the El Dorado Springs Chamber of Commerce. During our March 2020 luncheon Janen Ehlers, Cedar County Health Department, spoke. Nobody knew much about COVID. Through the Summer we didn’t watch the national news so much as local. We ended up having Just of our events– had eight out of ten luncheon meetings – We modified some of our events to keep the public safe. We did our annual Excellence in El Dorado Springs event in Spring Park which allowed us plenty of space. We also changed or amended the format of the Springs City Spooktacular to be a drive through.

We hated to cancel the Christmas Parade and the Holiday Expos. That was the most difficult thing for me since I’ve been here. We had conversations with the Health Department, CCMH, CMH and Mercy Clinic. All begged us not to have it.

Another way the Chamber adapted to 2020 was to become a decimator of information for the community.

We are back to business as usual.

Talking to area businesses, the pandemic did not affect businesses in our area, like it did in other areas of the country.

Janean Ehlers – Cedar County Health Department. The figures produced by the Health Department are not completely accurate. A  lot of people have been tested more than one time. We report the number of tests we have given. Some agencies that do testing don’t report them at all – The numbers we have are what we report. The only accurate number we have are how many people have died – 22.

It was bad because it was just me.  As part of the job we had to contact every person who had been in contact with someone who had tested positive and some of those who tested positive wouldn’t not tell us who they had been around.

There were 1016  cases. It has slowed down a lot, but it has not gone.

Bruce Rogers – El Dorado Springs City manager. Rogers said the city kept normal precautions, closing the Community Center until they felt it was safe. The pool will re-open for the summer. The city is in good shape and we had the lowest positivity in the state for several weeks.