By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Unified Command’s business at its Wednesday meeting dealt with preparations for an influx of travelers, vaccination efforts and the addition of a lower-risk level designation, among other items.
“Yellow is not the lowest level anymore,” Craig Warren, Sitka fire chief and the city EOC incident commander. “There will be a kind of a chartreuse-green that is the lowest level. Right now it’s going to take us 12 days of no cases to get to that level.”
The current risk color coding is yellow-orange-red, for low, medium and high risk for COVID transmission. Chartreuse will be used when Sitka has a 14-day rolling case average of .21, or three cases over two weeks.
Sitka is currently at “moderate,” with .64 average cases per day, based on the 14-day rolling average; and currently has 8 active cases on the dashboard.
It was the group’s first meeting in three weeks; the next is April 28.
Warren also noted the influx of requests for information from those wanting to come to Sitka. He suggested making the information more accessible on the city website.
“Make it a little more user-friendly to hopefully allow people to find information without having to call the (public information officers) or myself to ask, ‘hey, what are the travel work requirements and recommendations?’” Warren said.
He said the group may also want to discuss signage at the airports as travel starts to increase.
Warren said he would also like to get the word out about safer activities (hike on trails) and businesses that follow precautions and qualify as a “COVID-Conscious Business.” The website cityofsitka.org lists 12 that have earned the designation. Two more have applied.
The public information officers shared a new link from the CDC for fully vaccinated people, and guidelines for what “fully vaccinated” means. The website said fully vaccinated is two weeks after a second dose in a two-series dose, or two weeks after the single-dose vaccine.
The website includes “do’s and don’ts” and recommendations for travelers.
In a vaccine update at the Unified Command meeting:
- Harry Race Pharmacy reported 38 second doses and about a dozen first doses given at Wednesday’s clinic. Pharmacist Trish White said a total of 1,367 had been vaccinated through the pharmacy, including 59 who received the Johnson and Johnson “one and done” dose. White said clinics are set up for Wednesdays and Fridays through the rest of the month.
“We do have a good supply of Johnson and Johnson now,” she added.
- Public Health Nurse Denise Ewing provided updates on vaccination clinics at the seafood plants, and said Silver Bay Seafoods is “moving toward 100 percent” of the workforce vaccinated; and other companies were progressing in their efforts as well this week.
The figures listed today showed the community’s vaccination levels at 4,543 partially vaccinated (65.55 percent) and 4,070 fully vaccinated (58.72 percent). The figures are from the Department of Health and Social Services, and based on the 16 and up population of 6,931.
Schools
Mt. Edgecumbe High School Superintendent Janelle Vanasse said the school plans to hold an outdoor graduation ceremony for the 75 graduates unless it’s raining, in which case it will be moved to the gym.
“We’ve got quite a lot of space in there,” Vanasse said, estimating three to four persons per graduate will attend.
“We’ve got it laid out where a graduate will have a box for their family - and they will be six feet away (from other families),” she said. The “boxes” will be taped on the bleachers or ground, depending on the venue.
Sitka School District Superintendent John Holst said graduations are also planned for Sitka and Pacific high schools. The SHS graduation will be in the gym with up to four tickets for each family, and families together in “pods.”
The other big news was that plans are in the works to have fulltime school in the fall - “back to normal,” the superintendent said.
“We’ll probably be doing mitigation - maybe three feet (distances),” Holst said. “Masks I’m sure are going to be part of that.”
Near the end of the discussion Holst said he believes the staff vaccination rate is now above 90 percent.
Sitka Tribe of Alaska General Manager Lisa Gassman discussed the tribal government’s work in securing more COVID relief funds for tribal citizens and programs. In the first round of CARES Act relief, STA received just under $8 million that went toward food, schools and other social service programs; and COVID-19 precautionary measures (e.g. HVAC upgrades, window replacement) in tribal buildings.
She said today STA doesn’t know how much will come to the tribal government in this round, but she has submitted all the paperwork requested by the U.S. Department of Treasury.
