By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
City officials and health care providers, along with many businesses, are focusing on prevention and preparedness when it comes to the threat of coronavirus – COVID-19.
“Nothing’s too exciting today,” Fire Chief Dave Miller said. “The big thing is wash your hands, get your flu shot, stay home when you’re sick. Those are still the big things in Alaska.”
The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services has a COVID-19 website, which will update the number of confirmed cases in Alaska (currently zero); persons under investigation (currently 9, pending tests); and cumulative since Jan. 1 (32, includes negative and pending tests).
“Thankfully at this time we (Sitka) have no confirmed cases,” said Miller, who is emergency manager for the city.
As for his own department, employees and volunteers are focusing on preparedness and prevention, he said.
“It’s clean here, but we’re doing more cleaning than in the past, more wiping down,” Miller said, adding, “None of us want to catch the flu either.”
Miller had the same message at Friday’s special noon meeting of the emergency planning committee, when he advised residents to have 14 days of supplies on hand in case of quarantine, but “not to panic.”
“When we get to that point, I’ll tell you, but we’re not there yet,” he said.
Miller added today staying home when sick is essential. He noted that Walmart is changing sick leave policies to encourage sick employees to stay home. “That’s pretty interesting, a company with 1.2 million - 1.4 million employees,” he said.
SEARHC Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center is also staying on top of the situation.
Communications Director Maegan Bosak said one change is limiting points of entry at all SEARHC facilities, in Sitka and across the consortium.
“We have signage to direct patients where to go, and we’re encouraging folks to follow that signage,” she said. Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center is directing staff and patients to use the main entrance and ER doors to enter the building.
SEARHC is also limiting visiting hours. The new hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. And non-essential travel is limited for staff. “Travel for patient care and clinical operations continues,” she said.
Bosak noted “things are changing daily,” and SEARHC will keep the public up to date. The facilities are fully stocked to provide health care at this time, she said.
The Sitka Pioneers Home is customarily on alert during flu season, and officials ask that those with respiratory or flu symptoms to refrain from visiting, in order to protect patients.
A Sentinel survey indicates that local stores were sold out of hand sanitizer. Sea Mart, AC Lakeside and Harry Race Pharmacy said they expect to have new supplies this week, and have “bulked up” their order in anticipation of the demand.
“We’re all trying to do that,” Andrew Hames, store director of Sea Mart, said Monday. “The reality is, the warehouses are struggling to supply the Seattle area as well.”
“Suppliers in the Pacific Northwest were particularly hard hit because the Seattle area is ground zero for the virus,” said Max Rule, president of Sea Mart, adding, “I was reassured by my wholesaler that they are looking at taking care of Alaska first.”
Trish White, co-owner of Harry Race and White’s pharmacies, said there have been no delays on regular requests for medications.
Three or four insurance companies, in response to the COVID-19 threat, have started offering approvals for early refills of medications, in line with helping patients be prepared. White said patients should give pharmacists as much notice as possible.
“Call ahead,” she said. “It’s not realistic to get it that day.”
Along with the branded hand sanitizers, supplies of aloe vera gel also have been sold out, White said, because some customers mix it with alcohol to make their own sanitizers.
The Sitka pharmacies have their own compounding lab, and White said the pharmacists will use it to mix up their own preparation of sanitizer, when supplies are available.
“Picture Bunson Honeydew,” said White, referring to the chemist character on “The Muppet Show.”
Fred Reeder, port manager for Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska, said the Alaska cruise ship schedule has not been changed, but Sitka may be picking up a few ships that originally had been scheduled for Asia. He said he’s keeping his eye on the situation.
“We’re calling it fluid – scheduling is fluid,” he said.
Reeder said the 2020 schedule is on the website, at https://claalaska.com/. “As far as we know that’s what the schedule will be.”
The latest from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control on reported cases of COVID-19:
Travel-related - 83
Person-to-person spread - 36
Under Investigation - 528
Total cases - 647
The data includes both confirmed and presumptive positive cases of COVID-19 reported to CDC or tested at CDC since January 21, 2020, with the exception of testing results for persons repatriated to the United States from Wuhan, China and Japan. State and local public health departments are now testing and publicly reporting their cases. In the event of a discrepancy between CDC cases and cases reported by state and local public health officials, data reported by states should be considered the most up to date.
ADHSS reports that CDC is no longer reporting the number of persons under investigation (PUIs) that have been tested, as well as PUIs that have tested negative. Now that states are testing and reporting their own results, CDC’s numbers are not representative of all testing being done nationwide.
