District 2 Supervisor Liz Archuleta — Grand Canyon National Park is beginning to increase access to South Rim Viewpoints

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

~ Oscar Wilde

Grand Canyon, Ariz.- Following guidance from the White House, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and state and local public health authorities, Grand Canyon National Park is increasing recreational access to selected South Rim viewpoints. The National Park Service (NPS) is working service wide with federal, state, and local public health authorities to closely monitor the COVID-19 pandemic and using a phased approach to increase access on a park-by-park basis.

Grand Canyon National Park’s South Rim South Entrance will reopen May 15-18 for incoming traffic from 6-10 a.m. with limited day use access to:

With public health in mind, the following facilities and areas remain closed to visitors at this time:

Commercial services within the park remain closed. Visitors exploring the South Rim should plan to be self-sufficient, bringing enough food and water during their trip as well as hand sanitizer. The park also recommends arriving no later than 9-9:30 a.m. in case of traffic backups entering the park. Once visitors enter the park, they can stay throughout the day; however, there are no overnight accommodations available.

“This initial reopening phase will increase access to our public lands in a responsible way by offering the main feature of the park for the public, the view of the canyon, while reducing the potential exposure of COVID-19 to our nearly 2,500 residents,” said Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Ed Keable.

The health and safety of our visitors, employees, volunteers, and partners continues to be paramount. At Grand Canyon National Park, our operational approach will be to examine each facility function and service provided to ensure those operations comply with current public health guidance and will be regularly monitored. We continue to work closely with the NPS Office of Public Health using CDC guidance to ensure public and work spaces are safe and clean for visitors, employees, partners, and volunteers.

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These figures are updated and will be shared every morning at 10:00 am in order tocoincide with the Arizona Department of Health Services release of data. We will continue sharing these figures in our daily newsletter.

Here is the information as of 05/14/2020:

AZDHS just updated their COVID-19 website which now includes race and ethnicity on confirmed cases, location of confirmed cases by zip code, ages & gender of related deaths, and number of hospital beds & ICU beds available.

Coconino County is participating in the Arizona Testing Blitz.

We encourage preregistering on our website https://www.coconino.az.gov/covid19.

Several community providers are participating in this statewide initiative.

To see all locations, visit www.azhealth.gov/TestingBlitz.

If you have not yet filled out the 2020 Census, please do so! By filling out the census, you are ensuring that our community is counted and can receive the necessary resources we need to keep our community safe, healthy, and thriving!

Other important things to keep in mind:

You have the option of completing the questionnaire by phone.

To begin, call 844-330-2020 for English or 844-468-2020 for Spanish.

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