The Wrangell Borough Assembly held a special meeting Monday evening, May 4, to discuss three agenda items related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Governor Mike Dunleavy and the Department of Health and Social Services recently announced four metrics by which they would determine if restrictions need to be eased or rolled back, to protect public health. According to the meeting's agenda packet, the four metrics are: Epidemiology, tracking disease trends and forecasts; Testing, tracking overall testing volume and changes in the percentage of positive tests; Public health capacity, monitoring cases and investigating for positive cases; and Health care capacity, ensuring hospitals have adequate capacity and supplies for patients.
In response to these metrics, the Wrangell Medical Center has put together a letter outlining Wrangell's local health care capacity during this pandemic. It came before the assembly for their own information, and for their approval to forward it up to the state level.
"Wrangell Medical Center under normal operating conditions has eight beds available to treat patients ill enough to need inpatient medical care," the letter, written by Dr. Lynn Prysunka, reads. "This is what we are staffed for and what we have the physical space for ... After considerable thought and evaluation, WMC has written a surge plan that would allow for us to manage 16 patients in need of inpatient care. This is what we could potentially staff and provide care for, for a very short period of time if we were to find ourselves needing to deal with an extreme situation. WMC does not have more capacity than this and it would be disingenuous to lead industry leaders and their patrons to believe otherwise."
After some discussion, the assembly approved of the plan to forward the letter to the state.
Next on the agenda was a proposed addition to The Marine Service Center user agreement. This new "Section 8" to the agreement covers how operations in Wrangell's boat yard will take place during the pandemic. In summary of the section, boat owners wanting their vessels worked on in Wrangell must comply with the guidelines in state Health Mandate 17, and a copy of the mandate acknowledgement form must be provided to the harbor before admittance into the marine yard. Vessel owners, operators, and crew must comply with the self-quarantine rules in Mandate 17, or otherwise complete their quarantine while out on the water. During quarantine vessels are required to fly a Lima flag. Work by vendors or contractors on the boat, below the water line, can begin immediately. Work above the waterline may begin 72 hours after the vessel is admitted to the marine yard and no crew has been on board.
This proposed addition to the user agreement was largely met with approval by the assembly, but there were a few proposed changes. Fisherman Mike Lockabey, speaking during the public comment portion of the meeting, suggested that the 72 hour wait time to get work done above the water line be shortened to 24 hours. After 24 hours, he said, the chance of germs surviving on the surface of a vessel seemed low, and waiting 72 hours would not be much safer than 24 hours. However, after some discussion, it was decided to keep the 72 hour wait time as it was written. Assembly Member Julie Decker also proposed that hyperlinks to state Mandate 17 be added to Section 8, just for clarification's sake. She also proposed that the harbor department have a supply of spare Lima flags on hand, just in case a vessel comes into town and does not own one. After some further discussion, Section 8 was approved by the assembly.
The final item on the agenda was a motion to approve the establishment and preparation of an alternative COVID-19 isolation site. This is another step in the direction of being prepared, Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen said. Wrangell has no confirmed cases of the virus at the time of the meeting, May 4, but setting up an isolation site is something that should not be put off until it was needed.
"We need to have a place ready to go for folks to be able to isolate if they test positive for COVID and just need a place to go and stay, and wait out the symptoms, until they are well and deemed clear of COVID-19," Von Bargen said. "This might be used for folks who live here in Wrangell but who can't have adequate separation at home from their families. It may also be used for people who are here just seasonally and don't have a place where they could socially isolate."
According to the agenda packet, the city is working with Trident Seafood to use one of their bunkhouses as an alternative isolation site, in the event of an outbreak in Wrangell. Aside from finding a physical location, preparation for the site includes cleaning and inspecting the building, organizing transportation and catering for people isolated there, provision kits need to be put together, staff need to be hired and trained, and much more. There is not a budget fully identified for this project yet, according to the agenda packet, but at this time Von Bargen was requesting a maximum of $100,000, which would be eligible for reimbursement under the CARES Act and FEMA. After some discussion regarding the cost of finding and setting up an isolation site, the assembly gave the project their approval.
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