JUNEAU (AP) — The state has reported the deaths of five residents of the Pioneer Home in Ketchikan who had tested positive for COVID-19.
“In the last week, the Ketchikan Pioneer Home has had five resident deaths and there has been a total of 12 residents and five staff test positive for COVID-19 this month,” Clinton Bennett, a state Department of Health and Human Services spokesman wrote in an email to the Ketchikan Daily News on Aug. 18. He did not provide a more precise timeline.
The state Pioneer Homes “do not determine the cause of death nor do they see the death certificates of residents,” Bennett wrote.
The death total in Ketchikan from COVID-19 as of Aug. 20 was eight, according to the community’s pandemic dashboard.
Bennett declined to answer whether the Pioneer Home residents who died had been vaccinated against COVID-19. The Ketchikan home, one of six operated by the state, has a vaccination rate of more than 90% for residents and staff, Bennett wrote. The facility is licensed for 45 beds.
The majority of cases tied to the recent COVID-19 outbreak in the Ketchikan facility “are no longer considered active, but if cases are considered active, they are asked to quarantine for at least 10 days after the positive test,” he said.
Bennett said testing is being done every three to four days until two weeks have passed without a positive result.
Ketchikan was hit by 168 COVID cases in the two weeks leading up to Aug. 20, the most in any two-week period of the pandemic. The recent surge represents almost 20% of all the cases counted in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough since the tally started in March 2020.
The state prison in Ketchikan recorded 12 cases between Aug. 10 and Aug. 17. The long-term care unit at PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center recorded 18 cases —12 residents and six staff members — between late July and Aug. 10.
Statewide, COVID-19 cases continue to rise, and the state health department on Aug. 18 said the highly contagious delta variant accounts “for almost all newly detected cases” in Alaska. State health officials have continued to encourage vaccinations.
Dr. Joe McLaughlin, the state epidemiologist, told reporters Aug. 19 that the longer that people delay getting vaccinated, “the more likely it is that they will get COVID, and it will be an ongoing threat for months and months to come.”
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