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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...
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...
Just look at the numbers. More than 2,200 new cases of COVID-19 in Alaska over July 15-25. More than 200 active cases in Sitka alone last week, winning the top spot for the worst outbreak in the state. Almost 60 active cases in Cordova, a town of 2,800, resulting in the closure of a seafood processing plant. Juneau reported 44 new cases over the weekend, and more than 150 in the past two weeks. The city brought back restrictions to contain the spread of the more infectious Delta variant of the...
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...
While growing up in the First City, Emilio Torres always knew he was going to make a movie. A recent graduate of New York University's film school, Torres arrived back in Ketchikan early in July to work with a cast of local actors and friends from film school to bring his debut short film, "The Ladder," to life. Torres, who moved to Seattle from New York City, described the project as a philosophical sci-fi short film about a fisherman who is confronted with a choice to change his life forever....
Life is returning toward normal, but it isn't normal yet. COVID-19 is still infecting people, putting some in the hospital and killing Alaskans. The state reported four more deaths Thursday through Sunday last week, bringing the number of Alaskans killed by the virus to at least 374. Last Friday, Sitka reported its worst COVID-19 outbreak since December, with five new infections, making a dozen new cases in just two days. And then 11 more were reported on Monday. Nearly all of Sitka's recent cas...
HONOLULU (AP) — For nearly a year, Maui residents had their tropical oasis virtually to themselves. Then the visitors all came flooding back. “Over-tourism” has long been a complaint of locals on the Hawaiian island that is among the world’s most popular getaways: congested roads, crowded beaches, packed restaurants. But as the U.S. begins to emerge from the pandemic, Maui is reeling from some of the same strains seen on the mainland, like a shortage of hospitality workers. And its restaurants, still operating at limited capacity, are struggl...
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled June 25 that Alaska Native corporations should benefit from hundreds of millions of dollars in disputed coronavirus relief funds, rather than be denied access and the money instead spread among Native American tribes around the U.S. The justices ruled 6-3 in the case, which involved the massive pandemic relief package passed last year and signed into law by then-President Donald Trump. The $2.2 trillion legislation earmarked $8 billion for “Tribal governments” to cover expenses related to the pandemic. The f...
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...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Officials in Anchorage have reported that the city’s sewer system is clogging up because people are flushing wipes and other items — a problem worsened by the pandemic as people continue to spend more time at home. Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility spokesperson Sandy Baker said up to 6,000 pounds of wipes entered the sewer system daily since the coronavirus pandemic started. “We saw a small uptick in wipes when the pandemic started,” Baker said last month. “But this is a year-round problem for us.” The wipes combine wit...
Just a couple weeks ago, Ketchikan reported 20 new COVID-19 cases in a single day and had more than 100 active cases in the borough. A week ago, the community still had more than 80 active cases and four people in the hospital. About 20% of all the cases reported in Ketchikan since the pandemic infected and inflicted its misery on the world more than a year ago have occurred in just the past few weeks. Many of the recent cases are people who did not choose to get vaccinated. Almost 40% of...
The U.S. House is the next stop for legislation granting a temporary waiver of federal law so that large cruise ships could come to Alaska this summer, avoiding a Canadian COVID-related ban on the ships stopping in that country’s ports along the way. Senators voted without opposition to approve the measure May 13. Even if the legislation makes it into law, however, it is uncertain that cruise lines would offer summer Alaska voyages. Most of the ships are not in position on the West Coast, and many operators are still struggling to come to t...
Ketchikan's first cruise ship of the year canceled its visit due to a spike in COVID-19 infections in the community, UnCruise Adventures director of marketing and communications Liz Galloway said last Thursday. The Wilderness Legacy, carrying 55 passengers, was scheduled to arrive early last Friday morning and stay until about 6 p.m. Ketchikan broke two pandemic records last Thursday, recording a record-high case count of 20 new infections, and marking an all-time high of 102 active cases....
A COVID-19 outbreak at a high school wrestling tournament in Ketchikan last month is linked to 23 infections in five communities across Southeast Alaska, including one case in Wrangell, according to health officials. Ketchikan High School hosted the regional wrestling tournament, an annual event that attracted athletes from eight other schools on April 24. In addition to cases in Ketchikan, wrestlers from Wrangell, Sitka, Mt. Edgecumbe, Craig and Klawock also tested positive for the coronavirus after returning home, according to Kacie Paxton,...
As if COVID-19 wasn’t destructive enough, politics has made it worse. It delayed vaccination drives and turned the needle into a political statement, dissuading millions from getting the shot. That needs to stop. If people choose not to get vaccinated, that’s their right. But self-serving office holders have turned it into a debate about freedom, not safety. That’s a bad way to make community health decisions. The country needs to work together — not start fights — to overcome the coronavirus, beat down the pandemic and get closer to 2019 norm...
The state Commercial Fisheries Division budget is facing no cuts for the upcoming fiscal year that starts July 1, assuming the current numbers make it through the Legislature and any gubernatorial vetoes. The budget approved by the state House on Sunday includes funding to reopen the Fish and Game Wrangell office, which the Dunleavy administration closed a year ago. The office was not in the governor’s budget proposal this year either, but was added in the House Finance Committee through the work of Ketchikan Rep. Dan Ortiz. The spending p...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - When the coronavirus pandemic began last year, Carolina Tolladay Vidal's pinata business in Alaska ground almost to a halt. "Many of the projects I had were moved to other dates," she told Alaska Public Media on April 16. "Many were canceled." Tolladay Vidal had to find fresh ideas to rejuvenate her Anchorage-based business and settled on making large, coronavirus-shaped pinatas. After Tolladay Vidal posted a photograph of a homemade coronavirus pinata on social media, the...
JUNEAU (AP) - Celebration, a four-day dance-and-cultural event billed as the largest gathering of Alaska Natives in Southeast Alaska, will return next year as an in-person event after widespread immunizations in the nation’s largest state, organizers said April 22. Sealaska Heritage Institute said the event celebrating Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures will be held in Juneau from June 8-11, 2022. The institute’s board of directors decided to return to an in-person event after the release of coronavirus vaccines, widespread imm...
The community is under a face mask order for all indoor public spaces until 11:59 p.m. April 30, though the borough assembly removed any penalties from the ordinance. The April 8-16 outbreak of 16 COVID-19 cases in Wrangell prompted an emergency assembly meeting Saturday to consider the public health ordinance bringing back mandatory face masks for a couple of weeks. Assembly members, however, voted near unanimously to eliminate any penalties for failure to wear a face mask. Mayor Steve...
JUNEAU (AP) - Juneau residents have filed paperwork for citizens initiatives that would impose limits on cruise ships in Alaska’s capital city. The proposed measures submitted April 12 would ban large cruise ships at certain times and over a specific size from Juneau. Filing paperwork is the first step in getting on the ballot. The city clerk has until May 3 to certify or deny the paperwork. If supporters are allowed to go forward, they would need to collect signatures from nearly 3,000 registered Juneau voters for each of the three measures t...
After no season last year, Wrangell started 2021 with hopes of as many as 20,000 tourists coming to town this summer aboard cruise ships of varying sizes, with capacity of between 40 and 700 passengers. With the loss of larger vessels, and some smaller ones, however, the maximum ship capacity into town has fallen to under 2,000 this summer. "The actual number of cruise visitors to Wrangell will likely be much smaller than capacity due to protocols and restrictions for COVID-19 safety...
Wrangell tallied nine COVID-19 cases between last Thursday and late Tuesday afternoon, as the community is dealing with a spike in infections. "Health officials have found evidence of community transmission of COVID-19 in Wrangell,"the city reported Tuesday. The latest case "is a household member/close contact"to another case reported earlier in the day, the city reported Tuesday afternoon. "The individual is a local resident and is in isolation." Three cases were reported by the city last...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy said he wants to use federal pandemic relief dollars for a national advertising campaign to support Alaska's tourism industry, though he provided no details or budget for the marketing campaign in the April 9 announcement. The governor's office also said tourism businesses will soon receive relief grants from the state, with details to come this week. Legislative approval is required to appropriate state funds. Dunleavy said he has put Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer in charge of...
MIAMI (AP) - The state of Florida has filed a lawsuit against the federal government, demanding that cruise ships be allowed to start sailing immediately. Gov. Ron DeSantis said April 8 the federal no-sail order is outdated and hurts the state as the industry generates billions for the economy and employs tens of thousands of Floridians. “We don’t believe the federal government has the right to mothball a major industry for over a year based on very little evidence and very little data,”said the Republican governor, a frequent critic of the P...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Anchorage will lift all limits on outdoor gatherings in a new coronavirus emergency order that will take effect on Friday night. Outdoor gatherings will no longer have capacity restrictions, though mask and social distancing mandates will remain. The new emergency order will remain in effect until June 11, unless it is either revoked or the city’s health department certifies that 70% of eligible Anchorage residents are fully vaccinated. The order, issued Monday, said about 36% of Anchorage residents 16 or older are fully v...
