GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — The excitement of festival season is upon us and across the state record crowds are being seen. The same is expected for the return of Coast Guard Festival underway right now in Grand Haven.
There have been no cases linked with the festival to this point, but with COVID-19 cases back on the rise, including the presence of the more aggressive Delta variants, health officials are asking people to be cautious while they enjoy the summer fun.
“Be mindful of your spacing with the people that are there, avoid getting into a crowd and pull yourself out if you are. Or have your mask available and put your mask on outside if people around you are getting closer than six feet,” says Ottawa County Deputy Health Director Marcia Mansaray. Right now Ottawa County is not considered a high-transmission area under CDC guidelines. “People are coming from all over the place to go to these wonderful festivals in Michigan and some of them are coming from high risk, high-transmission areas.”
Mansaray says for the most part vaccinated people shouldn’t be worried, since the event is largely outdoors and says unvaccinated people could use the festival setting as an opportunity to protect themselves from the virus.
“Most of these events have opportunities to get vaccinated right there at the event, that is still our best prevention. Even if you get infected, you will have a less serious illness. We don't want to develop herd immunity through infection with COVID-19. That's a really risky proposition. And every time someone gets infected, we risk another mutation that brings another variant that's even worse than what we have now. So vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate,” Mansary explained.
Of course, if you do have symptoms after being at a big public event or festival make sure you get tested.
“You don't want to be bringing that into your family, into your workplace, to your friends and relatives who may be vulnerable medically or unvaccinated,” she added.
The vaccine clinic at Coast Guard Festival runs three days this week, beginning Tuesday at 1:00p. For the full schedule, click here.
