FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE….
We want to take this time to let our citizens know that Gordon County, Calhoun, and leadership and public safety from all municipalities continue to work alongside each other to address issues relevant to COVID-19 within our community by communicating daily and holding bi-weekly meetings. These bi-weekly meetings serve as tools to make sure we are all collaborating together to stay up to date on our current situation as well as that around our nation. We also monitor numbers daily to include increases in cases and deaths both statewide and in Gordon County as well as numbers from our local hospitals on COVID-19 cases, bed availability, and ventilator availability.
It has come to our attention that scammers are beginning to try and profit from the Coronavirus. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread to communities throughout the U.S., the epidemic of coronavirus-related fraud continues unabated. Here are some things to watch out for.
Contact tracers, who are employed by state health departments, are an important tool in controlling the spread of COVID-19. Legitimate tracers may contact you via phone, e-mail, text, or in-person to find out the names of people you’ve been in contact with and places you’ve visited. But if someone claiming to be a contact tracer asks you for money, or requests your Social Security number or financial information, the individual is a con artist, the Federal Trade Commission says.
Fraudulent contact tracers are also lurking online, says the Federal Trade Commission. Don’t click on a link or download a file sent by someone purporting to be a tracer. Legitimate contact tracers will never ask you to download anything.
We will continue to monitor situations daily and do all that we can to keep our citizens safe. Since the beginning of this pandemic, we have worked diligently to try and stay ahead of this virus as a team here in Gordon County. We ask that our citizens continue to do the things that can be done during this time to help our community as a whole such as frequent hand washing, consideration of wearing a mask in public, and staying home if you are sick with signs and symptoms. If you do feel you need to be tested the Gordon County Health Department will begin testing on September 1st at the Gordon County Senior Center which is currently closed to normal operations. The Senior Center is located at 150 Cambridge Court in Calhoun and free testing will be conducted on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 8:30-4:30. No appointment is needed for this testing.
####
