By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
City emergency responders and other city staff said today they hope Sitka will be prepared for the additional work required by Gov. Dunleavy’s latest revision of travel-related COVID mitigation.
An empty Sitka Airport is expected to see an increase in the number of travelers. (Sentinel Photo)
“We’re doing a dry run today on how it’s going to work,” City Administrator John Leach said today. “It’s a lot of planning and a lot of practice.”
The revision of State Health Mandate 10 goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. In effect it says a traveler who tests negative for COVID within 72 hours before their travel will not need to self-quarantine for 14 days.
Leach was at the airport at noon today with Fire Chief Dave Miller, the city’s emergency response manager, to get a sense of the “flow” of arriving airline passengers.
“We just needed to see how people were responding to the signs and our setup,” Leach said.
“I think it went very well,” Miller said. “Over the next couple weeks things will change, and that’s just improving on how we’re doing things. I think it’s going to go well.”
There are other testing options for before and after arriving. Referring to those passengers who choose the post-travel testing options, the new regulation says:
“If the test comes up positive the (arriving) traveler must isolate at their own expense and will not be able to travel unless cleared by public health.”
An empty Sitka Airport is pictured recently. The Sitka Unified Command is working on plans for dealing with increased numbers of flights and visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
Leach said healthcare workers and city staff, and new temporary hires, are getting ready for up to 90 incoming passengers on each of the three daily flights to Sitka, some of whom might need the COVID test at the airport.
He said the city and SEARHC have been working closely with the state to be ready to process the paperwork and administer the tests.
“I think we’ve got a pretty good plan to make sure people are screened and tested before the next flight comes in,” Leach said. “We’re going to need cooperation from the community, too,” he said. “If you’re not departing or arriving – please don’t be in the space. Say goodbye in the parking lot.”
Testing was among the topics of discussion at Wednesday’s Unified Command meeting at the fire hall. Leach said he and Miller received “a lot of support” for the Sitka airport plan from the state incident command team and state Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zinke.
“They were happy with it,” Leach told the Unified Command team Wednesday.
Leach said today the state is covering the cost of the testing, and providing supplies, information and support.
“They’ve offered to pick up as much of the burden as they could,” he said. SEARHC is contracting with the state on the tests, and coordinating the process with the city.
“We have staff that will work with your staff to make sure that there’s a clear administrative handoff of information regarding each test evidence performance,” SEARHC Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Elliot Bruhl said Wednesday.
The state has contracted with Allen Marine to provide workers for screening, greeting, and administrative support at the airport. Some arrivals will have paperwork showing they had a negative test within 72 hours of leaving for Alaska. Some will choose to self-quarantine for two weeks. For those needing a new test, a new area has been set up at the former Alaska Seaplanes side of the terminal for that purpose, Leach said. SEARHC will prepare and send the samples to the lab, and do followup.
“We’re trying to encourage people coming to get tests before you come here,” Leach said. “You will fly through the process and get on to your vacation. If you complied and your test is negative, come in and enjoy Alaska.”
While fears have been expressed that the testing alternatives will discourage tourists from coming to Alaska, Leach said he believes the opposite is true.
“This is a way to get people into the state and enjoy Alaska,” he said. “And it’s giving us some of our tourist season back. It’s a somewhat safe way to do it and allowing a pathway to get people here and a way to do it safely.”
The requirement for a 14-day self-quarantine is still in place for those who don’t want to go through the testing routine. There are exemptions for travelers in certain essential service categories.
On Thursday the state Department of Health and Social Services announced that Sitka’s latest positive case was one of 18 “nonresident cases identified on Wednesday, 17 of which are in the seafood industry.”
The DHSS report said, “Eleven are in the Valdez-Cordova Census Area; three are in the Aleutians West Census Area; one is in the Kenai Peninsula Borough; one is in the Municipality of Anchorage; one is in Kodiak Island Borough; and one ‘other industry’ case is in the Sitka City and Borough. This brings the total nonresident cases, which are listed separately from the Alaska cases, to 41.”
Sitka had two other positive tests, April 25 and May 25, both asymptomatic cases. The latest case is symptomatic, and the patient is in self-quarantine, health officials said.
