Cañon City response to Covid-19. Message from the Mayor

Please be assured that Cañon City is staying on top of the constantly changing COVID-19 situation. We are proactively working with stakeholders and are prepared for if and when it comes to Fremont County. One of the greatest strengths of our small community is that we can pull together quickly and effectively. In order to come together, for health and safety, we need to stay apart. Please stay home if you have a high temperature or flu-like symptoms, avoid groups over ten people, support local restaurants by choosing carryout and drive-thru services, and use our children’s extra time off school in ways that won’t spread germs. It will be important to stay informed, steady-minded, and use this opportunity to bring out the best in us. Let’s be compassionate, patient, operate as normally as possible, and do our part to be good neighbors. ~Ashley Smith, Mayor

As the coronavirus (COVID-19) becomes more widespread, keeping residents and city employees healthy and city operations functioning are at the forefront of our minds. There is no higher priority for the city than protecting the health and safety of our residents. In a proactive effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 in Colorado, our city buildings are closed to the public until Friday, March 27. City staff will continue to work and offer limited services during this time, including but not limited to building permits, library curbside service, museum online collections, and bulk water services. City Council meetings are cancelled until April 6, 2020. We will be exploring alternative ways to conduct meetings and make them accessible to the public in case we need to extend building closures. The coronavirus has no impact on the quality or supply of your tap water. According to the CDC, coronaviruses are susceptible to the same disinfection conditions as any other virus. As required for all municipal water systems, the treatment processes used at the Cañon City Water Treatment Plant remove or destroy 99.99 percent of all viruses. We want to alert the public to a number of COVID-19 scams and misinformation occurring throughout the country and remind the public to only visit reliable websites such as Colorado Public Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Fremont County Public Health, for information on COVID-19. Please do not click on any suspicious COVID-19 email links. Please do not give personal information over the phone, email, online, or at your door. At the current time, there is no vaccine for COVID-19, so please do not send money to any business or person saying otherwise. A number of scams currently in circulation include:

• Robocalls stating the city is mandating business closures and/or asking for money
• Private companies offering fast COVID-19 tests for sale
• Consumers purchasing large amounts of products and reselling them at higher prices
• Door-to-door fraudsters offering fake decontamination services
• Fraudsters posing as police to issue fines to consumers wearing masks
• Fraudsters urging people to invest in new stocks related to the disease
• Phishing, spear-phishing, and other malicious email campaigns
• Fraudulent and deceptive online ads

At this time the city has not mandated the closures of any businesses. If you receive a call to that effect, please disregard, as it may be a scam. You can report a scam to the FTC at ftc.gov/complaint We encourage the public to stay safe and vigilant during this time. Please do not panic but do use safety precautions. It is a good time to remember that we have a high at-risk population in our area. Our elderly residents need your help to stay safe so please practice social distancing and do not buy items (cleaning products, groceries, toilet paper, fuel) in bulk in a panic.

We encourage the public to take advantage of our mild climate and get outdoors. We have a number of trails and parks that offer respite from being cooped up inside while allowing a safe six feet distance from others. We do, however, encourage parents to limit their children’s exposure to playground equipment as COVID-19 is shown to linger on surfaces for up to three days. If you do let your children play on playground equipment we recommend wiping down the equipment with disinfectant wipes before and after use. Also be sure to have your children wash their hands before and after playing on the playground. During this time we have closed public restrooms at our parks in order to keep the community safe as the vandalism of our soap dispensers and theft of the toilet paper created an unhygienic situation for residents and staff. For more information and updates on the COVID-19 situation, please visit our website at canoncity.org/covid19