By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The expiration of the local mask mandate ordinance next month and going to “mask optional” in the school district were among the topics of Wednesday’s Unified Command meeting.
Other updates covered the availability of free, federally supplied masks, and the new policies at Mt. Edgecumbe High School.
Sitka’s mask ordinance expires March 22, 2022.
One of the co-sponsors said today he doesn’t plan to propose an ordinance to extend the present mask policy. The original mask mandate was passed last July 29 as an emergency ordinance that would expire in 60 days. It said the mask requirement would end if the Sitka alert level fell below “high.”
But prior to that measure’s Sept. 28 expiration date the Assembly adopted a replacement, as a regular ordinance expiring on March 22, 2022, that would keep the mask requirement in effect as long as Sitka’s alert level was “high.”
The Sitka School District adopted its own mitigation policies mirroring the city’s, and this week announced its intention to make masks optional on March 22, the date the city’s mask ordinance expires.
Sitka remains at high alert, with 28 cases reported for the past two days and a weekly total of 94. The case rate is 1,103.
When contacted today, Thor Christianson, who co-sponsored the current mask ordinance, said he does not plan to propose an extension and hasn’t heard from anyone else on the Assembly who’s interested in doing so.
“I don’t have any plans to try to renew it, because there’s so much opposition to it,” he said. “In order to make it effective (with larger fines), it would be too onerous. ... I have a lot of frustration with some of the discussion about the protection of the wearer. We’re wearing masks to protect others.”
He added that the situation has improved from the time the first emergency ordinance was approved, when Sitka had as many as 200 cases in a week.
“We have higher vaccination rates and it’s not the same virus right now,” Christianson said.
Assembly member Crystal Duncan, the co-sponsor of the original ordinance, said today she also does not plan to introduce a new ordinance to extend the mandate.
She sent the following message today by text:
“At the time, there were a lot of factors that influenced the need for an ordinance on mandatory masking in public, of those the most concerning being that children were unable to get vaccinated. Hopefully this month the FDA will meet to discuss emergency use of the vaccine for children under five. Coupled with decreased hospitalizations with the now dominant omicron variant, I don’t see the need to extend or renew the ordinance. I do want to acknowledge the community’s effort to practice COVID mitigations, and I plan to continue taking those precautions after the ordinance expires, in line with CDC recommendations.”
In other Unified Command business Wednesday, Mt. Edgecumbe High School superintendent Janelle Vanasse reported that 72 percent of the students there are vaccinated, with booster shots.
“We have about 90 percent that have some sort of increased immunity,” she said. “That’s a big indicator for us that we may be able to start easing up on a few mitigations.”
Vanasse said the school is working on slowly implementing a “phased plan” for easing mitigation measures.
“You will start to see students in town,” she said.
Phase 1 of the plan began a week ago, and allows town leave and grocery runs for students, and attendance at basketball games at Sitka High.
On campus, mask requirements remain in effect in large group settings but not in their smaller social groups.
“Similar to other students who are probably not always wearing masks in their homes,” Vanasse said. “Now our students are going to be able to have a little bit of unmasked time in their ‘homes.’ We will monitor all of that.”
If all goes well and case rates stay low, she said today, “We’ll look at reinstating other activities we used to do.”
The school has had 10 cases in the last seven days.
“Overwhelmingly, students are having no sickness or mild sickness,” Vanasse added.
The superintendent said there is a lot of excitement about opening for town leave.
“Some of our kids have been here a couple of years and haven’t really had that normal experience,” she said today.
Reporting on the Sitka School District, Superintendent Frank Hauser said fewer teachers and staff are out sick.
“Things appear to be tending in the right direction,” he said.
Hauser commented that the schools had hoped to transition to masks being optional after winter break but the lengthy Omicron surge pushed the date out to March (see story).
Trish White, Harry Race pharmacist, said the federal government has provided free N95 masks for the public, which are available at Harry Race and White’s with a limit of two per customer. She also said Harry Race is continuing to hold free vaccination clinics.
The schedule and signups are available at sitkapharmacies.com. SEARHC offers vaccinations as well with registration at covid19.searhc.org.
