Daily Sitka Sentinel

COVID Rules Ahead For Temp Workers?

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer

With no confirmed cases yet, city and emergency leaders say Sitkans are working hard to prevent and slow the spread of COVID-19 if and when it arrives in town.

“I think Sitka is doing an awesome job, trying to stay locked down, and stay away from each other,” Fire Chief Dave Miller, the local emergency manager for the pandemic, said today.

The number of confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the state is on the rise; in Southeast, most of the confirmed cases are in Juneau and Ketchikan, and Petersburg reported its first confirmed case Sunday.

SEARHC said 293 tests have been given so far in the 27 communities served by the healthcare consortium. One confirmed case came in last week of a SEARHC patient in Juneau. Results are pending on another 33, SEARHC said.

City Administrator John Leach said that, although it’s “currently surprisingly quiet in Sitka’s world” as it relates to COVID, he and others are looking ahead to new challenges with the arrival of seasonal workers, such as those in the fishing industry. 

To that end, Leach hopes to see an item addressing this on the agenda of a special Assembly meeting Thursday.

City Attorney Brian Hanson said it may be in the form of a “emergency ordinance” or a discussion/direction item.

Hanson noted that Gov. Dunleavy’s Health Mandate 10 – requiring those arriving in the state to self-quarantine for 14 days, and work from home – has exceptions for those supporting critical infrastructure.

The mandate requires businesses in this category, with workers arriving from out of state, to submit plans about how the business will protect workers, prevent the spread of COVID, and “not endanger the lives of communities in which you operate ....”

Leach noted that Sitka expects and needs such workers, particularly those arriving to help in the city’s response to the pandemic.

The state Department of Health and Social Services on Friday issued new recommendations, under Health Alert 10, on wearing cloth face masks, in line with new recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control.

The alert says the public should take preventative measures whether of not they have COVID symptoms:

“Scientific evidence available to date indicates that asymptomatic and presymptomatic shedding of the virus that causes COVID-19 is occurring,” the alert says. “This means that people who have no symptoms whatsoever may be infected with the virus and capable of transmitting the virus to others when interacting in close proximity — for example, speaking, coughing, or sneezing. This heightens the need for community-wide implementation of control measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among people who are not experiencing symptoms of illness.”

While the alert notes the best prevention measures are unchanged – social distancing, frequent hand-washing, and disinfecting high-touch surfaces – “another tool that may help to minimize transmission while people are around others outside of their household is the use of face coverings. Because we are experiencing a nationwide shortage of medical supplies, including face masks, we recommend that Alaskans make their own face coverings and wear them in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies), especially in areas of significant community-based transmission.”

While SEARHC is asking for donations of home-made face masks for its use, the city is not asking for face mask donations for the city work crews who continue to provide essential services, such as keeping the lights on and the water running. But Leach said employees are following the rules related to social distancing and group gatherings as they perform their jobs.

Those who can work from home are doing so, Leach said, and it seems to be working out well. 

The last several Assembly meetings have been held through Zoom video-conferencing, with Assembly members attending remotely. A process has been set up for public testimony, although no one testified at the last meeting.

“Everybody seems to be happy with the way they’ve been working; we are starting to deal in the process of doing things remotely, through Zoom and other video-conferencing systems,” Leach said. “It seems to be working well. We’re even at the point where we can start bringing boards, commissions and committees back. We’re all getting smarter and better as we go though it. The lights are still on, and things are still getting done ...”

Leach said city workers are invested in coming up with new ways of getting things done.

“I’d like to think morale is high - I know everyone is frustrated by the challenges,” he said. “Essentially, things are working, and we’re finding new ways to do business, people are getting really excited about how creative they can be, and they take a lot of ownership when they find a new way of doing things.”

The entrance doors at city hall are locked, the hallway lights are off, and a limited number of people are at work on each floor.

At the fire hall, no volunteers are on-site, and volunteer training has been suspended. Paid staff members are working back-to-back 24-hour schedules to limit comings and goings. Crews continue to respond to ambulance calls, but extra precautions are in place for possible COVID cases.

“I hope nobody gets sick, because we’re trying hard to make sure it doesn’t happen,” Miller said. “That’s the way we’re going to do it – staying locked down for the rest of the month.”