COVID Exhaustion and Disappointment

Dear UFP beloved community:

I have no words for how much I hate being the bearer of the last two weeks’ COVID news. 

Here’s where we are at.

• Of the 108 people who have died of COVID in the Peterborough area, 8 have died in the last 2 weeks.
• There are 12 active institutional outbreaks, including at the hospital itself.
• Local COVID hospitalizations as I write are 3x higher than they were in early September — a level not seen since the peak of the Spring wave in April.
• There’s a strong continuing upward trend in today’s data.
• Many of us know of multiple cases this week in our own congregation — all contracted at exactly the kinds of local, purposeful, social, community-supportive indoor events we all want to be at again so much.

Our Board policy, informed in detail by Peterborough Public Health (PPH) guidelines and the wise guidance of our Safe Gathering advisory team, is that we meet online-only in weeks that the PPH Local COVID-19 Risk Index is High or Very High.

This wave will end. It will not end immediately. We all long to get back to normal, and it was a joy to be back together in September. We hope and expect to be in-person again soon.

The Board knows how much this is hurting each of us and all of us. Keep an eye on the website for ways we are trying to make the best of this unwanted situation.

— Ben Wolfe (President), for your UFP Board