COVID-19 Update: Stay Cool and Stay Safe!

Each summer, we look forward to relaxing days and time spent with family and friends. We would usually use this opportunity to ask you to be careful on road trips, prepare for storm season, and enjoy the outdoors. These are still important summertime reminders, but we have additional responsibilities now that will help us keep our community healthy and safe.

The measures that we have instituted at the Smithsonian also can help you protect yourself outside of work. Just as you would practice social distancing in the workplace, maintaining a safe distance in public and avoiding crowded spaces helps prevent person-to-person transmission of COVID-19. Cloth face coverings, which are mandatory for our workforce and our visitors and are required in many localities, also help slow the spread of the virus. Practicing social distancing, wearing face coverings, and frequently washing your hands are important steps you can take anywhere to protect yourself, your community, and your colleagues.

This summer is a strange one, but you can still relax and enjoy yourself. The CDC provides helpful tips for visiting parks and recreation areas and public beaches and pools as well as for safely traveling and socializing (cook-outs, dining out, and visiting gyms and libraries). One simple message is emphasized by both the CDC and the Smithsonian: if you’re sick, stay home. Staying home when you feel unwell, even if just mildly so, is essential.

It can sometimes be difficult to see, but the small steps we take every day contribute to a much larger collective effort. At work, at home, and in the places where we gather, we have the ability and responsibility to safeguard one another.

It is our hope that as we embrace these new habits, we will be ready to open our doors and resume our research and education initiatives when the time is right. For now, we are focused on planning. Reopening must be done thoughtfully and strategically, in the short-term and moving forward. Although it may appear that our pace is quickening, we will not be opening additional facilities until it is safe to do so and until we have laid the groundwork for more on-site activities. The decision to welcome the public to the National Zoo and the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center was not made lightly. We are reopening these facilities because they meet important criteria, such as our ability to ensure crowd control, and because we believe there are valuable lessons to be learned from testing our new practices and procedures.

Thanks to you, we have been able to react swiftly and as One Smithsonian to the ongoing pandemic, in everything from pivoting to digital education and adapting to a virtual workplace, to the mammoth task of reopening the Zoo and the Udvar-Hazy Center. We are counting on you to take care of yourselves and one another as we move forward.

Sincerely,
Coordinating Officer Doug Hall and the COVID-19 Response Team

Related posts:

COVID-19 Team Update: Reminder on Policies, Guidelines, and Resources Thank you for your help! COVID-19 Update: Phase Two Resources and Guidelines What does the Smithsonian look like in a post-COVID era?