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A plan to start testing student-athletes for COVID-19 will produce faster results and make it possible to continue scheduled home and away games while keeping kids safe, school officials said. Athletes have to test twice a week, before and after games. Results from the tests that look for genetic material from the virus in a nasal swab take two to three days, known as PCR tests. The schools are going to use an antigen test, which looks for a protein from the virus and can yield results in 15 minutes. Antigen tests for COVID-19 “are generally l...
While Wrangell did not report a single COVID-19 infection between Sept. 10 and 21, the state tracking website reported almost 8,000 new cases over that period. Alaska’s numbers are so bad lately that the state’s average rate of daily new infections over the past week is more almost triple the national average — and higher than any other state — as reported on The New York Times COVID-19 tracking page. Alaska is facing “one of the sharpest surges” in the country, the state epidemiologist said Sept. 16, adding that it’s not clear when the situ...
Six candidates are vying for three seats on the Wrangell school board. Angela Allen, Alex Angerman, Brittani Robbins and Elizabeth Roundtree are running for two open three-year terms. The top two vote-getters will win the election. Julia Ostrander and Jessica Whitaker are competing to fill one seat for an unexpired one-year term. Although each candidate has similar goals they want to achieve during their term if elected, they all have varied backgrounds and experience they believe would lend a...
After starting July at 56%, then moving to 58% on Aug. 1, the rate of eligible Alaskans getting at least their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine has now climbed to 60%. Though the rate is improving, Alaska is still far behind the national average of 71%, as reported Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Alaska is two-thirds of the way down from the top in rankings of the 50 states. Just like the state’s rising tally, Wrangell’s rate of eligible residents with at least their first shot has climbed from 61% to 64% in the pas...
HONOLULU (AP) - Hawaii’s governor on Monday asked that visitors and residents reduce travel to the islands to essential business only for the next two months while the state struggles to control COVID-19 as the highly contagious Delta variant spreads in the community. Gov. David Ige wants to curtail travel to Hawaii through the end of October. “It is a risky time to be traveling right now,” he said. He said restaurant capacity has been restricted and there is limited access to rental cars. Ige stopped short of a mandate, saying it’s a differe...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - More than 3,000 fake COVID-19 vaccination cards were confiscated at cargo facilities at the Anchorage airport after they had arrived from China, officials said Aug. 19. Officers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized the cards as they arrived in small packages, said Jaime Ruiz, an agency spokesperson. There were between 135 and 150 packages found in Anchorage, all sent by the same person in China, Ruiz said. The packages contained small amounts of the fake cards, about...
The school board has decided to continue with its COVID-19 mitigation plan that requires students, staff and visitors to wear face masks in the buildings, though the policy will be reviewed again two weeks after classes begin. The plan approved at the board meeting Monday evening calls for review of the masking protocols on a monthly basis. Classes start Aug. 31. The next school board meeting is scheduled for Sept. 13. "Masks will be required for students, staff and guests while in school or at school events," the plan now reads. "During...
Petersburg schools will open Aug. 31 with face masks required for at least the first two weeks of the semester, reviewing the policy at the next school board meeting on Sept. 14. Based on the high count of active COVID-19 cases in Ketchikan, schools there would open Aug. 26 with face masks required of all students, staff and visitors under a draft back-to-school plan subject to school board approval. Ketchikan’s mask requirement would shift to optional when the active case count in the community drops to five or fewer. The count was 98 a...
As the Delta variant spreads and as COVID-19 case counts climb throughout Alaska, more health care providers in the state are requiring that their workers get vaccinated. Full vaccination also will be required of students living in on-campus housing at the University of Alaska Southeast and at the university campus in Anchorage. The PeaceHealth hospital system, which operates the Ketchikan Medical Center, announced Aug. 3 that all caregivers will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 starting Aug. 31, unless they provide proof of a medi...
After leading the nation in vaccination rates earlier this year, Alaska has slipped to the bottom third among the 50 states. Alaska’s rate has not moved up much in the past couple of weeks, despite an increasing number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations statewide since mid-July — numbers that have not been this high since last winter in some communities. The higher case count — averaging almost 300 a day in the past couple of weeks and approaching 400 on a few days — comes as students are returning to school, with administrators eager f...
MIAMI (AP) - A federal judge has temporarily blocked a Florida law that prevents cruise lines from requiring passengers to prove they’re vaccinated against COVID-19, saying the law appears unconstitutional and won’t likely hold up in court. The “vaccine passport’’ ban signed into law in May by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis appears to violate the First Amendment rights of Norwegian Cruise Lines, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams wrote. In a nearly 60-page ruling issued late Sunday, the judge said Florida failed to “provide a valid evidentiary...
The Wrangell School District plans to start classes Aug. 30 with face masks required when staff and students are indoors — same as last year. The district is working under its COVID-19 mitigation plan, released in June, and will adapt it as needed, said Bill Burr, who took over as schools superintendent July 1. Burr said he has met with borough officials and the community’s health care provider, the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, “to try to get a cohesive plan all together.” Advance planning for how to respond as COVID case co...
Face masks are going back on in several communities across Alaska as health officials continue urging people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The state reported more than 1,000 new cases of the coronavirus Friday through Tuesday, and almost 4,000 since mid-July, as the numbers have climbed to high-alert levels not seen since last January. Meanwhile, vaccination rates have not changed much, reaching 58% of all eligible Alaskans age 12 and older with at least one dose as of Tuesday, up from 57% a week ago. Alaska’s senior U.S. senator, Lisa M...
Using federal pandemic relief funds, the state has paid more than $162,000 toward past-due and future rent and utility bills in Wrangell, part of $85.2 million paid out on behalf of tenants across Alaska since early April. Of the 99 Wrangell households that applied for the aid program, which closed to applications in March, payments have gone out for 49, with 41 still in processing and seven ineligible or withdrawn, Stacy Barnes, public affairs director at the Alaska Housing Finance Corp., said last week. Priority was given to catching up on de...
Wrangell’s half-dozen new COVID-19 cases July 15-27 are a small piece of a wave of infections spreading across Alaska, with more than 2,200 cases reported statewide during that same period. Most of the new cases are people who have not been vaccinated, state officials said. The hardest-hit communities have been Sitka, the Kenai Peninsula, Cordova, Anchorage, Fairbanks, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and Juneau, though almost all of Alaska is at high alert this week based on rising case counts. There were 95 COVID patients in Alaska hospitals a...
Alaska Airlines said it was not aware that a passenger who boarded Flight 73 in Sitka the morning of July 20 had tested positive for COVID-19 a day earlier “We would never allow someone to travel that is COVID-positive, knowing they were COVID-positive,” Alaska Airlines spokesman Tim Thompson said July 21. “Our priorities are for the safety of staff and employees.” State public health Denise Ewing said a visitor from outside Alaska who was in Sitka on vacation tested positive for COVID-19 on July 19 and was provided test results, includi...
TORONTO (AP) - Canada announced Monday it will begin letting fully vaccinated U.S. citizens into the country on Aug. 9 — without a 14-day quarantine requirement and with no restrictions on the reason for traveling — and will allow travelers from the rest of the world on Sept. 7. The open border will apply only to U.S. citizens at least 14 days past their vaccination shot, according to the Canadian government announcement. Travelers will be required to upload proof of vaccination to Canada’s web portal, and will be required to show proof of a...
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - Pandemic restrictions on Florida-based cruise ships will remain in place after a federal appeals court temporarily blocked a previous ruling that sided with a Florida lawsuit challenging the regulations as burdensome. The one-paragraph decision by a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was filed at 11:50 p.m. Saturday, just minutes before a Tampa judge's previous ruling against the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention restrictions was set to take effect. The judges' issuance of a...
As of last week, employees, contractors and volunteers with the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, which operates in Wrangell and 18 other communities, must show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or risk losing their jobs or access to the facilities. Exceptions will be allowed for staff who are pregnant or breastfeeding, have a history of anaphylaxis or allergy to the vaccine, or “persons whose sincere religious observances and practices related to life, purpose or death oppose vaccines,” according to the policy. “Do...
It’s not like old times of 1.3 million cruise ship visitors to Southeast Alaska, but it’s the start of the best it’s going to be this summer. The first large cruise ship to stop at an Alaska port since 2019 is scheduled to tie up in Ketchikan on Friday, though Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas will not be anywhere close to its 2,476-passenger capacity. It’s a trial voyage, at a roughly 10% passenger load, intended to test out COVID-19 protocols and show federal health regulators that the company can deal with any infections should th...
With the arrival of the biggest cruise ship to call on Wrangell this summer a month away, the borough and the cruise company have settled on operating plans to help lessen any risk of spreading COVID-19 among passengers, crew and residents. Silversea Cruises is planning to dock the Silver Muse in town Aug. 1, 22 and Sept. 12. The ship has capacity to carry 600 passengers and a crew of 400. Basically, the cruise line and borough have agreed to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, Wrangell Economic Development Director...
MIAMI (AP) - Royal Caribbean International is postponing for nearly a month one of the highly anticipated first sailings from the U.S. since the pandemic began because eight crew members tested positive for COVID-19, the company's CEO said. The brand new Odyssey of the Seas was to set sail from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on July 3, but is now postponed to July 31. Royal Caribbean International's CEO Michael Bayley said June 15 on Facebook that the decision had been made "out of an abundance of...
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge on June 18 ruled for Florida in the state’s lawsuit challenging a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pandemic order imposing standards before cruise ships can resume sailing. U.S. District Court Judge Steven Merryday wrote in a 124-page decision that Florida would be harmed if the CDC order — which the state said effectively blocked most cruises — were to continue. The CDC order said ship operators can choose between running a test cruise to show they can effectively stop the spread...
The Coast Guard announced it has received permission from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to no longer enforce the mandate that requires anyone traveling on commercial vessels, including ferries and fishing boats, to wear a mask in outdoor areas. It will take some time for the CDC to formally revise the executive order and its mandates that initially required masking up outdoors on maritime vessels, Kodiak public radio station KMXT reported June 11. Until then, the CDC said it will not compel the Coast Guard and vessel operators...
Eager buyers are awaiting Alaska salmon from fisheries that are opening across the state, and it’s easy to track catches and market trends for every region. Fishery managers forecast a statewide catch topping 190 million salmon this year, 61% higher than the 2020 take of just over 118 million. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Run Forecasts and Harvest Projections for 2021 Alaska Salmon Fisheries and Review of the 2020 Season provides breakdowns for all species by region. And salmon catches are updated daily at ADF&G’s Blue Sheet, found...