Daily Sitka Sentinel

‘Community Spread’ Cited in COVID Case

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer

“Community spread” was the likely source of the positive COVID-19 case in Sitka reported more than a week ago, the local public health nurse reports.

“If you don’t pinpoint it to an exact flight, to an exact place or an exact person, it can just be community spread,” said Sitka Public Health Nurse Denise Ewing. “There was no designated point or source from which this was contracted. It was ‘community spread.’”

It was the second of the two positive tests in Sitka since the start of the pandemic. Both cases, April 25 and May 25, were asymptomatic.

Contact tracing involves contacting those who had been in contact with the patient the previous two weeks. They are 

tested, and monitored daily for two weeks. Those who are tested self-quarantine for two weeks.

So far, none of the contacts in the recent case has tested positive, Ewing said.

She said a finding that “community spread” was the source is not particularly surprising, in light of the restrictions on travel and quarantine requirements in recent months.

“At first (before travel restrictions), we could trace it to travel, when someone was traveling from outside Alaska,” Ewing said. “Through contact tracing, we could trace it back to the source: ‘I was on this plane, at this time, sitting by these people.’ Or ‘I was at this airport, I got on this plane’ and you could trace it.”

The daily reports by the state Department of Health and Social Services say whether positive cases are related to travel, or to a source within the community where the case is detected.

“Now things have changed,” Ewing said. “After quarantine requirements and travel restrictions were in place, we started to see an increase in community spread.”

A finding of “community spread” is not particularly satisfying for the person who tested positive, she said.

“They would like to trace it back to a point in time,” Ewing said. “When you can trace it back to a person, place or time, it’s almost like you’ve gotten an answer; it’s almost like closure.”

Ewing, who does contact tracing around the state, said with travel picking back up again she expects to see “travel” again resurface as a primary source.

State Health Mandate 10 requires a 14-day quarantine for travelers into Alaska. It expires at 11:59 p.m. Friday.

“Introducing new people into a quarantined area we will be able to pinpoint it to travel,” she said.

Gov. Dunleavy announced Friday that travelers into the state must be tested for COVID-19 before boarding a plane to Alaska, or submit to a 14-day quarantine upon arrival. He said out-of-state travelers will need to show proof of testing within 72 hours of boarding and fill out paperwork. The new testing requirements are intended to replace the quarantine policy that expires Friday.

Numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Alaska have been on the rise in recent days, with 18 new cases reported today. (The report from the Department of Health and Social Services reflects data from midnight through 11:59 p.m. Tuesday.) 

DHSS releases the latest information on new cases around noon daily on its Alaska Coronavirus Response Hub.

With the state’s “responsible reopening” and the relaxed quarantine requirements on Friday, public health officials in Sitka advise that residents should continue to follow all of the precautions for preventing and slowing the spread of COVID.

“I feel like a broken record, but the most important thing people can do is keep their distance, wear their masks and wash their hands,” Ewing said. “We have to open back up, we have to learn to live with COVID – until we find a cure.”