You might have noticed in recent days that life in and around Fountain Hills has taken a slight detour from “normalcy.”

COVID-19 is taking its toll, resulting in school closures, event cancellations and concerns due to shortages of supplies and access to medical services. In the meantime, we’re all being asked to help slow the potential spread of coronavirus by social distancing, which is just a fancy way of saying you should stay home if able and, if unable, you should take precautions while working or running to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription.

There’s some mixed messaging out there concerning the severity of COVID-19, which is why we want to reiterate our encouragement to listen to the experts. Drop by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website at cdc.gov and read up on everything from the latest updates concerning the virus to symptoms to be on the lookout for and much more. There’s a lot to dig through, but chances are they have the answer to most, if not all, of your questions.

As for how things are going at The Times, we’re doing our best to make sure residents are kept up to date on everything going on around town, even as that list is dwindling or simply shifting due to things like precautionary cancellations.

In the meantime, we ask our readers to please bear with us as everything continues to fluctuate. Announcements are being made on a constant basis, with details shifting as new information becomes available. The story you read this morning might have been updated once again by this afternoon.

We’re doing our best to stay on top of things and keep our updates as accurate as possible, but please bear with us in the coming weeks as we make adjustments to handle the changes taking place in the world around us. Some sections might be absorbed into standard news, for instance, due to inactivity.

Whatever happens, we’re taking it in stride and we hope our readers are doing the same. Stay informed and, of course, stay safe out there.