By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
On Tuesday Sitka will adopt the Centers for Disease Control’s new “community level” model for COVID-19 risk, the city Unified Command announced Friday.
One of the major results of the “community level” model could be that Sitka will move from “high” alert to “medium.” This in turn would advance the date for “masks optional” in Sitka schools to Tuesday, and the citywide mask mandate would end.
An email from Sitka School Superintendent Frank Hauser this afternoon clarified:
“Beginning tomorrow, Sitka will no longer be in a high alert level but in a medium COVID-19 community level. At this medium level, the City and Borough face-covering ordinance will no longer be in effect. SSD’s mask policy will be suspended. Masks will become optional in SSD tomorrow, on March 1.”
The email added, “This does not mean masks cannot be worn in schools tomorrow or that no one should wear a mask.”
The city ordinance says masks aren’t required when the official alert level falls below “high.”
The Unified Command group held an emergency meeting Friday following release of the new “COVID-19 Community Levels,” which the CDC says are new tools to help communities decide what prevention steps to take based on the latest data.
The focus Friday was whether the city should shift to the new model, said Craig Warren, the incident commander. The focus was not on masks, the mask ordinance or masks in the schools, he said.
“We wanted to figure out if it was best for Sitka,” Warren said. “It takes into account not only case numbers but how sick people are getting and how much healthcare is available... The EOC decided it was the best model for Sitka.”
The CDC says:
“Levels can be low, medium or high and are determined by looking at hospital beds being used, hospital admissions and the total number of new COVID-19 cases in the area.”
The new community levels are “low,” “medium” and “high” for assessing community risk for COVID transmission.
The CDC has recommended prevention steps for each level:
Low – Green – recommends staying up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccines and getting a test if symptoms show up.
Medium – Yellow – recommends high risk residents talk to a healthcare provider about whether they need to wear a mask and take other precautions, in addition to the recommendations for Green.
High – Orange – recommends wearing a mask indoors in public, in addition to the recommendations for Yellow and Green.
The announcement comes as Sitka’s cases are going down, with the most recent data showing 22 cases in the week of Feb. 21-27. In the current system, Sitka is still at high alert.
Under the updated CDC recommendations Sitka’s status would be “medium,” Warren said. Sitka has had no hospitalizations in the past 60 days, and only three in the last 90 days.
“If there are a lot of cases but hospitalizations are not starting to go up we’ll be at medium, and if case levels start dropping we could be at low very quickly,” Warren said. “We felt this was a better model because it looks at more than one factor – being the case rate – and looks at the capability of the hospital and how many people are in the hospital. We also felt it was a better model, given the Omicron surge, than the model we’re currently using.”
Emails from the Sitka School District Friday and today commented that the adoption of the new CDC model would move up the timeline for going to masks being optional.
Hauser said in the Friday email that the school district had been watching for new alert-level guidance since November, and has said that if Sitka moved out of “high” more quickly than expected, “we would make the transition to masks optional sooner.”
Hauser said that while COVID is still here, “times have changed,” including the drop in cases, availability of boosters, treatments available and high number of Alaskans infected with the predominant variant.
Warren said that from the outset of the pandemic response, the Sitka Emergency Operations Center has been open to changes in line with the best information, and being able to adapt.
“From day one we felt we need to make changes that are appropriate and in the best interest of the community,” he said.
The Unified Command news release said:
“While we recognize changes can be challenging we feel that it was in the best interest of the community to make this change. We ask for patience as we roll out these new guidelines and update the City and Borough of Sitka COVID-19 dashboard.”
Many recommendations from the EOC are unchanged, including “face masks strongly encouraged for individuals regardless of vaccination status,” maintaining physical distances of six feet, proper hygiene, and staying home when sick.
EOC also continues to recommend COVID vaccinations, and provides links to access at sitkapharmacies.com for Harry Race Pharmacy, and covid19.searhc.org for SEARHC.
The city mask ordinance expires March 22, and no plans for a new one have been announced.
