Sorted by date Results 101 - 125 of 208
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Health officials have reported a case of a coronavirus variant in Southcentral Alaska first detected in South Africa. The Alaska case was reported as first identified in March in the region that includes Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, according to a report from a consortium of state and university health officials dated April 6. The report did not provide case details such as how the person got the virus or whether others may have been exposed. Five new cases of a variant first identified in the United Kingdom...
Face masks are required in all indoor public spaces until 11:59 p.m. April 30 under an emergency ordinance approved unanimously by the borough assembly Saturday morning as the city responds to the COVID-19 breakout in town. The community tallied 16 cases April 8-16. “This is the highest number by double we’ve ever had active in Wrangell at any one time,” Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen told the assembly. In addition to protecting public health, the outbreak is hurting the town’s economy, Von Bargen said. The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health...
The Canadian border has been closed for more than a year and, judging from last week's news, it's not likely to reopen in the late-spring future or even the early-summer future. British Columbia recorded its highest number of daily cases last week. For the first time in the pandemic, British Columbia reported more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases on two consecutive days. Last Friday's case count was a record high, surpassed the next day by an even higher count. The previous record was set just...
The Wrangell Wolves High School wrestling team took second place in their first match of the season. The team traveled to Juneau to compete Friday and Saturday in the Brandon Pilot Invitational at Thunder Mountain High School, where they wrestled against five other Southeast teams. At the end of the tournament, the Wolves had tallied 74 points, behind only Juneau's Thunder Mountain at 84 points. "We whooped everybody except for Thunder Mountain,"Assistant Coach Jack Carney said Monday....
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued new operating guidance for cruise lines, with at least one company just three days later submitting its plan to possibly resume sailings in July. An industry group, however, strongly criticized the instructions. The new federal guidance does not change the reality for Alaska that Canada has not lifted or amended its ban on cruise ships. Without a change in Canada, or a temporary waiver from U.S. law requiring a stop in a Canadian port for...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - The island community of St. Paul, in the middle of the Bering Sea, has issued an emergency stay-at-home ordinance after its first case of the coronavirus. An essential worker tested positive on the island, the Anchorage Daily News reported April 1. It is the first reported coronavirus case in St. Paul since the pandemic began. The city’s hunker-down order will last from April 1 until April 15 and was approved by the St. Paul City Council on March 31. All of St. Paul’s residents besides those in essential government, bus...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - The Anchorage School District have implemented weekly coronavirus tests for high school hockey players after at least 64 students tested positive for the virus or were told to quarantine because they were a close contact to someone who had the coronavirus. The Anchorage district said all of the cases can be linked to two recent competitive hockey tournaments. “Unfortunately, we’ve gotten to the point where we have enough positive cases related to hockey that we are having to take extra precautions to keep schools open and kee...
City officials reported three more COVID-19 cases late Wednesday afternoon, bringing to 12 the total number of new cases in town in the past seven days. "Wrangell is experiencing a COVID outbreak," said the statement issued by Wrangell's emergency operations center. "There is confirmation of community spread of the virus. We need everyone’s help to stop this outbreak." The three reported coronavirus cases Wednesday are local residents and are in isolation. The outbreak started last Thursday, with more cases reported Friday, Sunday, Monday and T...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Eight Alaska youths have developed a serious inflammatory syndrome from previous coronavirus infections, state health officials said in a report. The report, released March 26, said some of the eight youths ended up in the pediatric intensive-care unit with severe complications. The condition they developed is called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C. The syndrome can lead to inflamed organs, including the heart, lungs, kidneys and brain, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since...
Group wants to include homeschooled graduates The Wrangell High School class of 2021 will soon be graduating, with traditional festivities reduced again by the coronavirus pandemic. Wrangell has a long history of celebrating female graduates and the women who have mothered them. Beta Sigma Phi inherited the tradition from the Wrangell Civic Club years ago and plans to continue it this spring. We are planning a COVID-safe mother-daughter recognition for April to celebrate our high school...
As of last week, Wrangell was hoping for 48 cruise ship stops from May 28 to Sept. 20, about half the number expected last year before the pandemic shut down all cruise ships from coming to Alaska. The 48 port calls on the draft calendar "is still incomplete as we wait to hear from some of the smaller vessels that stop in Wrangell," according to the chamber of commerce website. While the few larger vessels on the draft calendar will operate only if Canada opens its borders to cruise ship...
PALMER — Health officials in Anchorage say they’re worried about a COVID-19 transmission source that could delay efforts to move past the pandemic’s human toll and crippling economic effects. That source is the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, the government-wary neighbor to the north where some residents balk at public health recommendations for mask-wearing and vaccination. “The large number of people who travel between the two communities daily makes high levels of disease transmission ... a concern,” Anchorage health officials warned in a rece...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Alaska lawmakers have advanced a bill that would double the state’s motor fuel tax, which has not changed since 1970 and is the lowest in the U.S. The bill passed in the House Transportation Committee on March 16 and moves next to the House Finance Committee for review. If it can pass the full House, it would go to the Senate, which approved a similar bill last year that failed to win passage in the House. The bill would double the state’s gas tax to 16 cents per gallon. Most of the $34 million a year in additional revenue wou...
SEARHC had more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine than people registered to get the shot as of Tuesday, and is looking for younger people to sign up. While the state just last week dropped its restrictions on who could receive a vaccination, opening the program to anyone 16 and older, SEARHC, which serves Wrangell and almost 20 other Southeast communities, has offered the shots to the general public the past several weeks. "Through efficient processes and steady allotments of vaccines, SEARHC staff...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Four additional cases of a coronavirus variant first detected in Brazil have been found in Alaska, state health officials said. Two of the cases were from Anchorage and two from Eagle River, health officials announced March 10. One case of the variant had previously been detected in Alaska, but officials last month said additional cases were likely given the person in that case had not recently traveled outside Alaska and did not have a clear source of infection. As of March 9, 15 cases of the variant had been reported in the...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has begun to raffle permits for some of its most desirable hunts to help raise money toward covering a nearly $2 million revenue loss due to the coronavirus pandemic. It’s called “Alaska’s Super Seven Big Game Raffle.” The permits will allow buyers to hunt species such as brown bears, caribou or musk ox. One of the seven hunts is in Southeast Alaska — the Revilla (Revillagigedo) Island mountain goat hunt — and the rest are in the Interior or Aleutian Islands. “We saw close to $2 million re...
JUNEAU (AP) - Gov. Mike Dunleavy has said he is feeling better after contracting the coronavirus last month. Though his voice still gets slightly hoarse if he talks for too long, his other symptoms are now mild, he said Friday. He had a bad headache, fever, chills and body aches for a several days, said the governor, who finished his isolation period Saturday. There have been more than 56,000 coronavirus cases and 301 virus-related deaths in Alaska as of March 5, according to data from the state Department of Health and Social Services. The...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Anchorage will lift its coronavirus-related capacity restrictions on many businesses and will ease limits on other places where people gather under a new emergency order set to take effect March 8. City officials announced the changes March 4, saying retailers, bars, restaurants and other businesses will have their capacity restrictions eliminated. Requirements for wearing masks and maintaining distance will remain in effect. Businesses must operate in ways that allow consumers to stay six feet apart from people outside of...
JUNEAU (AP) – In a move intended in part to encourage a COVID-conscious visitors to Juneau, city leaders have approved changes to local testing requirements for travelers. Those include waiving a $250 COVID-19 testing fee for non-resident travelers who are tested at the airport and exempting “fully vaccinated” individuals from strict social distancing after testing. The City and Borough of Juneau Assembly approved the changes March 1. The rules define fully vaccinated as people who have gone more than two weeks since receiving a second dose...
Petersburg remained in its red high-risk level as of Tuesday after 85 COVID-19 cases were reported in the community over the past 13 days. As of Tuesday evening, 65 coronavirus cases were still active, according to the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. The spike in cases started Feb. 18, with the high point of 37 infections reported Feb. 23-26. There were 11 news cases reported on Tuesday. Results from 212 coronavirus tests were pending as of Tuesday evening. The joint...
The Jehovah's Witnesses, which has a congregation in Wrangell and meets via Zoom twice a week during the pandemic, has posted a short video on its international website, "Virus Outbreaks - What You Can Do." "Few events in modern history have harmed the emotional well-being of people around the world as has the COVID-19 pandemic," the denomination says. "To help address this situation ... the three-minute whiteboard animation offers families practical methods to cope emotionally and spiritually...
The federal government has approved Alaska’s plan to distribute almost $50 million in pandemic relief payments to the state’s fishing industry. The decision came after two major revisions to the plan and more than 200 public comments from every industry sector. Applications will be accepted from March until May and payments could begin as early as June, public radio network CoastAlaska reported Feb. 26. They money is coming from the federal CARES Act, a $2.2 trillion package of pandemic relief aid, which Congress passed almost a year ago. The s...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - A highly transmissible coronavirus variant originally traced to Brazil has been discovered in Alaska, as have 10 cases of a strain first identified in California. The first case of the California variant was identified in Alaska in January, and has since been discovered in nine more infected people. The report came Feb. 24 from a team of scientists assembled by the state to investigate new strains of the virus. Researchers say the California variant is more contagious and potentially more effective at evading vaccines. The...
With a growing number of COVID-19 cases in the community - 36 between Thursday and Wednesday morning - Petersburg officials have elevated the community risk level to red. The number of active cases are the most in Petersburg since the pandemic started a year ago. "The cumulative total of cases is growing larger by the day," the Petersburg emergency operation center said in a statement at 4 p.m. Tuesday. "Many of these cases are still under investigation and contract tracing is difficult." The...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Alaska public health officials said 58% of residents 65 and older have received at least their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccination since distribution efforts began. State Epidemiologist Dr. Joe McLaughlin said the state hopes to move the process along faster as more contagious and potentially deadly strains of the coronavirus emerge. “Right now, it’s sort of a race against the variants to get people vaccinated,” McLaughlin said Feb. 17. Alaska’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink said the state wants more Alaskans 65 and olde...
