Description

Mayor Lyles provides and update on intergovernmental coordination for the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. (transcript is available below)


A special message from the mayor.

Hello, everyone, I'm Vi Lyles mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina. And I'd like to take just a few minutes to talk about what is going on in our city as well as going on across the country.

We have joined the rest of our country in fighting a pandemic, whether you call it the coronavirus, COVID-19, it is with us. It is everywhere. I don't quite know if we've ever had anything like this as difficult to deal with. But we are dealing with it. Every action we take is with the welfare of your health, as welfare of our kids, as the welfare of our entire city. That is what's most important right now.

So before I go on to what we're doing, let me take a moment to thank the people that are making this city work right now. I'm particularly grateful that the governor has stepped up giving guidance. I want to thank Gibbie Harris, our public health director, who has worked tirelessly with our healthcare systems, and those members of our healthcare community, thank you so much.

We know that you have families, you have homes, and you're taking hours to do the work that's necessary to take care of us to other essential workers, whether you're at the grocery store, cashier, the police officer, or people that are picking up our garbage on a regular basis. We are grateful. Without you, we wouldn't be able to do what we're doing. So let's talk about what we're doing.

As mayor, I've been in touch with the White House, our federal delegation of senators and representatives, as well as mayors of large cities, as well as mayors of the surrounding communities that are in our state and county. We are trying to keep up everything that this virus throws at us. We're throwing something back. But you have to help us. We need you to follow the social distancing guidelines, we need you to wash your hands, maintain the six foot separation. I love going into the stores and seeing the blue tape, because that means that we're careful. We're doing the right things, and we're going to continue to do it.

We're in this together. We're no better or no worse off than every other community out there. So when we work together, we'll make it happen. We're going to change this landscape. We're on the right path. And we can do this because we can do anything when we work together.

Learn more at CharlotteNC.gov