SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — In the city of Sioux Falls, there were 6,398 active cases of COVID-19 on January 7th. On January 19th, there were 12,189. Active cases have almost doubled in the past two weeks.

Taneeza Islam, a lawyer who announced her run for mayor in October says the more information the people have on COVID-19 the better. She would like to see weekly updates from the mayor’s office and…

“When the city council voted to encourage masking, the people of Sioux Falls listened, all they needed was little extra encouragement, that was not a mandate, and I’m not talking about new regulations but just the mere encouragement for people in our community to take this seriously once again really explain how serious it is needs to come from the mayor’s office,” said Islam.

David Zokaites is also running for mayor. He says science and common sense are the key to putting the Omicron surge behind us.

“The emotional side says this is a horrible problem and we need to do whatever we can and we need to do it now. The rational side of me says well, but what can we practically do we can encourage people to wear masks we can show them how to wear masks but by the time that generates enough momentum and get itself going into the group mentality the surge is pretty much going to be over,” said Zokaites.

Mayor Paul TenHaken told us Wednesday that he is in contact with the city’s two hospital groups and says the city is using research to take a targeted approach to get people vaccinated.

“The northwest quadrant of our city for instance has a much lower vaccination rate than the rest of the city so we’ve done research to understand why is that and how can we counteract the messages whether it’s, in some cases its just availability and we’ve set up a mobile vaccine unit that goes out to those communities,” said TenHaken.

The city’s Coronavirus Resources webpage says the virus that causes COVID-19 is transmitted similar to the virus that causes influenza. The city encourages everyone to practice good respiratory hygiene, which includes: proper handwashing, covering your cough, and staying home if you are ill.