By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
With vaccinations on the rise, and Sitka solidly in the “moderate” risk range for the COVID-19 virus, the Unified Command’s weekly review on Wednesday took less than eight minutes.
“We’re still in the low-moderate range,” said John Leach, one of the incident commanders. Although the rolling case rate is just above “low,” Leach said, “we’re probably going to stick with moderate through the rest of the week. If everything continues down the track we could get back down to low, probably over the weekend, but we’ll keep an eye on that.”
Leach also called attention to a new notice on the cityofsitka.org information page about the new federal mandate for wearing masks on public modes of transportation and hubs, including airports, planes, trains, ferries, and “intercity bus services.” There are exceptions as well.
The executive order from the president is at:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/21/executive-order-promoting-covid-19-safety-in-domestic-and-international-travel/
Jessica Ieremia, one of the city’s Emergency Operations Center public information officers, said the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services is getting information out about the variant strains of COVID-19, and how it’s entering into the state through travel.
“But there is a silver lining and the good news is, the transmission isn’t any different than what we’re already dealing with right now,” Ieremia said. “So they’re asking for us to really put out information about strictly socially distancing after you travel - up to five days, continue to avoid crowds, just keep doing all the exact same stuff that we’re doing. Even though we’re tired of it, and it’s exhausting, we just have to keep kind of trudging along and just keep doing the exact same stuff.”
In the SEARHC update, marketing and communications director Maegan Bosak said SEARHC has administered 2,405 first doses of COVID vaccine and 1,070 second doses. Those figures had risen to 2,656 first doses and 1,116 second doses by this morning.
“We continue to have first and second dose clinics throughout the month,” Bosak said. “It’s pretty exciting. Most of those are going to be happening at Harrigan Centennial Hall.”
The link to registering is covid19.searhc.org and all registering must have a valid email. “You’ll get a link to schedule once your sequences are called,” Bosak said.
The current sequence being called by SEARHC is 50 and older, and “all medically vulnerable 16 to 64, and all essential workers.” She said the vaccination clinics are becoming more efficient, with eight patients per 15 minutes, up from the previous figure of six.
“That equates to approximately 300 people per clinic being vaccinated,” Bosak said.
Trish White, co-owner of Harry Race Pharmacy, announced planned clinics: Feb. 10 and 17, for first doses of the Moderna vaccine.
Registration for vaccinations through Harry Race is open for healthcare workers and individuals age 65 and older. Appointments are available Feb. 10 and Feb. 17 through the link:
https://www.sitkapharmacies.com/covid-19
Clinics through Harry Race are at the Fire Hall. Those with questions may call the pharmacy at 966-2102.
Amy Ainslie, city planning director and EOC resource unit manager, updated the group on the growing interest in the COVID Conscious Business Program. As of today, nine for-profit and nonprofit businesses are listed on the city website as COVID Conscious Businesses.
From the schools, Sitka School Superintendent John Holst said the start of in-person instruction after the holiday break has been going well, including the start of the basketball season.
“Everything’s going well in the schools,” he said, noting challenges some other districts are having with transmission. Sitka has seen no evidence of transmission in the schools, a statistic that’s given on the Sitka schools dashboard.
Mt. Edgecumbe Superintendent Janelle Vanasse said students were pleased to be allowed to once again go into town when the rolling case average and alert level went to low.
“It was like sending a big swarm of bees into town,” Vanasse said. “They were really disappointed when we popped back into moderate.”
Vanasse added that the school plans to make an adjustment with the start of the town’s COVID Conscious Business Program. Small supervised groups students will be allowed to go businesses on the CCB list when the school is at “low” – no cases on campus – and the town is at “moderate” risk level.
“That’s an exciting thing – just an adjustment we’ve made in our plan to let people know that we really appreciate the efforts in being COVID conscious,” Vanasse said, adding today, “Those efforts really help keep our students safe.”
No new cases were added to the dashboard Wednesday, one was added Thursday but none before press time today. The 14-day rolling average edged up slightly to .71 per day. The latest positive test was an asymptomatic man in his 70s, tested on Feb. 1. The transmission classification was “travel.”
Sitka has eight active cases. The cumulative totals are 285 positive tests for residents, 32 nonresidents and 5 cumulative hospitalizations.
The test totals in Sitka are: 47,361 tests performed, 47,191 results received and 170 results pending. The positive result cumulative total is 323 positive results, 298 unique positive results and 46,868 negative results. The dashboard is generally updated by 5 p.m. daily.
