Daily Sitka Sentinel

City Passes Queries On COVID to State

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer

City Administrator John Leach said some confusion remains over the Assembly’s decision Tuesday to rescind a local ordinance requiring a 14-day self-quarantine for travelers arriving in Sitka.

“We now live under the state mandates that go with the reopening plans, and the limitations on people in the buildings,” Leach said in his report at the weekly Unified Command meeting Wednesday. “We’ve been sending everybody with questions to the state mandates, and it’s going to take a few days to ... clear up a little confusion.”

The Unified Command is a group of community leaders in charge of the local response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

City Public Information Officer Sara Peterson made an audio recording of the meeting, which was used for this story.

Leach said the confusion stems from the fact that there are both city emergency ordinances and state’s Health Mandates covering the same issues.

The Assembly rescinded the city 14-day self-quarantine requirement for new arrivals, but State Mandate 10, with the same quarantine requirement, will remain in effect until May 19 unless the state extends, revises or cancels it.

Peterson said today she has received many phone calls from around Alaska and the Lower 48 inquiring about the issue.

“Sitka was under strict quarantine for so long, they want to know if they can come to Sitka,” she said.

Peterson said she and other PIOs around the state are having the same experience fielding calls from those trying to decipher the applicable state mandates and local ordinances related to travel.

In addition, Gov. Dunleavy signed State Mandate 18 on Monday. It set “conditions and guidance” on travel within the state by road or the Alaska Marine Highway, as of May 12.

Peterson said the calls she’s receiving are from those wanting to travel to Sitka for work or pleasure, and are checking in about the current regulations.

The Assembly passed a resolution on Tuesday encouraging residents to follow state mandates and continue following protocols to slow and prevent the spread of the virus.

“Social distancing, good hygiene, face coverings, and reminding people it’s important to get tested if they have symptoms,” Peterson said today.

Dr. Elliot Bruhl, SEARHC vice president and chief medical officer, told the Unified Command group about the focus of SEARHC on increased safety and clinical environments, with mandatory testing for everyone who works at Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center.

That occurred last week, with all the tests negative.

“We will continue to test all of our employees who are in patient care areas every two weeks,” Bruhl said. “We’re moving this week onward to all our locations outside the hospital ... so by the end of next week we’ll have tested all of our employees in the entire company and we will in the outpatient areas continue to test all of our employees in any patient care areas every two weeks.”

Later Wednesday, Maegan Bosak, SEARHC communications director, sent out an update of tests and testing supplies, as of Wednesday. She reported 1,762 COVID-19 tests conducted throughout the consortium, with five positive cases  and 108 pending results, in Southeast.

SEARHC has a total of 4,511 COVID-19 testing supply kits in stock, along with 1,408 ID NOW rapid test kits.

Test data for select SEARHC communities:

Sitka: 951 conducted, 71 results pending

Juneau: 265 conducted, 5 results pending

Wrangell: 294, 30 results pending

Klawock: 97, 2 results pending

Haines: 88, no results pending

Bruhl noted that Sitka’s number represents some 11 percent of the population.

“That’s quite a fair number,” he added.

Denise Ewing, Public Health Nurse, said that statewide there were 383 confirmed cases, 10 deaths, 342 recovered and 38 hospitalized.

She listed the positive cases by age group, with the highest percentage of positive cases in the 30- to 39-year-old age group, 19.5 percent. Next in order was the 50 to 59 age group, with 17.75 percent of the positive cases, and the 20 to 29 age group close behind, 17.5 percent.

Updates are provided by the state at 1 p.m. daily, she said.

In other health-related updates, Bruhl told the Unified Command group that SEARHC is taking other steps to ensure safety, such as cleaning and disinfection, screening, laundering procedures, masking patients and social distancing.

“So that’s a very, very different,  environment to be practicing medicine - all that additional work and additional activity around all of our patient encounters,” Bruhl said. “And while that’s not a fail-safe ... we’re doing absolutely everything we can do to keep the clinical environments safe, as we were having an increased movement of patients through those environments.”

He praised the “adaptability” and hard work of the staff at SEARHC.

Near the end of the meeting Bosak said SEARHC wants patients to come back to the hospital for their continued care needs.

“And also stressing immunizations because of a lot of ... well-child checks and immunizations are falling behind schedule,” Bosak said. “So there’s concern in the fall school season that there could be other diseases that pop up because of this.”

Wein added that the delay of screening for several cancers, due to COVID concerns, is resulting in missed or delayed cancer diagnoses, according to recent studies.

Lisa Gassman, Sitka Tribe of Alaska general manager, said the tribe has received $5.4 million from the $8 billion Congress approved for coronavirus impacts on tribes.

“We had already received $1.5 million, so it’s roughly $6.9 million we have received to date,” she said. “We’re going to be working on the next couple of weeks on developing our plan for utilizing those funds. ... We’re still looking at the guidance that’s coming out.”

Leach and Gassman plan to share information on ideas for CARES Act funding.

The funds so far have been used for such expenses as deep cleaning the STA facilities, increased social services needs, and putting the pieces in place to allow STA employees to work from home. STA’s offices remain closed.

Jay Sweeney, who is addressing financial impacts of COVID, provided an update on FEMA and CARES Act funding.

Richard Wein, who is Assembly liaison and a medical doctor, updated the group on recent Assembly actions. From a medical point of view, he talked about recent developments with various testing systems.

Wein added today that the team should be making plans for “future eventualities.”

“As planners, we need to be having preemptive conversations concerning possible issues related to COVID-19 such as surging and additional waves, and to help the public understand that we will be ready for any eventuality that might confront us,” he said today.