By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
With five new positive tests added Wednesday to the dashboard and three so far today, Sitka is now solidly in the “moderate” risk range for COVID transmission.
No information is available on whether the new cases are vaccinated or not, but one of the eight is under 10 and too young for a shot.
Sitka has eight current active cases, and a 14-day rolling average of .71 cases per day.
Sitka Fire Chief Craig Warren, the incident commander for the city emergency operations center, said residents need to keep their guard up, and continue to follow precautions.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” he said.
Denise Ewing, public health nurse for the state, agreed.
“If people aren’t vaccinated they need to protect themselves – we can’t do it for them,” she said. “So wear masks and limit gatherings. ... The reason we have this spike is travel and not being vaccinated.”
The dashboard is updated generally around 5 p.m., but the three positive tests from this morning were posted earlier.
“Precautionary for the 4th of July events, if you’re not vaccinated, protect yourself,” she said. “We’re having a lot of events going on, a lot of fun happening. I want to make sure the people who aren’t vaccinated wear a mask to protect themselves.”
Ewing raised the possibility the Delta variant of the virus could come into Sitka through travel.
“It’s in the state of Alaska,” she said. “Because of travel it could be here.”
Ewing said the Delta variant is the result of the mutation of the virus as it’s passed person to person since its inception. She said it’s “more powerful, more contagious, and people are getting sicker from it.”
“Those who are vaccinated, the vaccination will protect them,” she said.
“Those who are not vaccinated there is no protection against a stronger strain.”
Warren talked about the use of the risk levels and color-coded sandwich boards to announce the risk levels which range from chartreuse (limited) to red (high).
“There’s a misconception that green means ‘we’re good to go, it’s all better,’” the chief said.
The chartreuse – bright green – was on the board for about a week but numbers have been rising since last week. Each risk level comes with a list of recommended precautions.
Warren said the risk levels are for public information but reaching the “low” and “limited” risk levels “doesn’t mean let your guard down.”
“It means we’re doing pretty good,” he said. “As the risk level comes down, though, everyone feels like, OK, let’s return to normal. But just because we’re seeing numbers go down doesn’t mean we’re saying open the doors back to life in 2019.”
The sandwich boards and announcements about risk levels were created in the interest of transparency, and in order to give residents some information so they can make their own decisions about their own safety, Warren said.
Warren repeated his request to the public to get the free COVID test at the airport after travel, and to keep in mind the safety of those too young to be vaccinated.
“That’s a scary population – folks who don’t have the opportunity to get vaccinated and we have no clue about the long-term effects of having had COVID,” Warren said.
As to precautions for the Fourth holiday, Warren said those not vaccinated should wear a mask and follow physical distancing guidelines.
“That makes a difference,” he said. “If you’re away from people and wear a mask you’re not going to catch this virus.”
All the latest eight cases are residents who are now isolating in Sitka:
– a man in his 20s, symptomatic, contact tracing in process.
– a male, 10-19, symptomatic, contact tracing in process.
– a man in his 30s, symptomatic, contact tracing in process.
– a symptomatic man in his 30s, due to “secondary” transmission.
– a symptomatic woman in her 30s, in process.
– a symptomatic man in his 50s, “secondary.”
– an asymptomatic woman in her 50s, “travel.”
– a symptomatic girl under 10, “secondary.”
