Capt. Dorianne Sprehe of the Wrangell Fire Department and manager of the borough's emergency operations center walks a caller through at-home test kit instructions on Monday. The borough received 650 test kits, each containing two COVID-19 tests inside, from the state last Thursday. One hundred of the kits will be kept in reserve for critical personnel at fire, police, port and harbors, and other departments.
Wrangell's emergency operations center last week received 650 COVID-19 at-home test kits from the state health department, reviving its supply which had dwindled to none amid the community's record number of new infections.
As of Tuesday evening, Wrangell was up to 157 new COVID-19 cases reported by the borough since Dec. 30, two and a half times the community's highest monthly count of the pandemic and representing about one of every 14 residents.
The post-holidays surge represents 40% of the total number of cases reported in town since the pandemic tally started almost two years ago.
Of the 650 test kits that arrived last Thursday from a Department of Health and Social Services' warehouse in Anchorage, 100 will be kept in reserve for testing critical borough personnel, such as public safety, police, fire, port and harbors and other departments, said Capt. Dorianne Sprehe of the Wrangell Fire Department and manager of the borough's emergency operations center.
That leaves 550 for anyone in town who needs one. Each test kit contains two COVID-19 tests. Of the self-test kits, 300 are Abbott Laboratories BinaxNow and 250 are QuickVue from Quidel Corp.
Individuals should call the fire hall at 907-874-3223 to arrange a pickup of the kits for their household.
But judging by past precedent, the tests will go quickly. Two weeks ago, the fire department's supply of 800 test kits were passed out in just over a week.
An additional 300 test kits delivered last week by the state public health nurse who goes between Wrangell and Petersburg were all gone by the time of this most recent state shipment.
The state shipment also contained 440 N95 masks, a particulate-filtering facepiece respirator that meets the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health classification of filtering at least 95% of the smallest airborne particles such as the Coronavirus.
Some of the masks will go to the schools because staff and teachers requested them, said Sprehe, and some could go toward emergency personnel, because that is the standard level of personal protective equipment, mask-wise, for responding to medical calls.
The state also sent 10,000 of the single-use-recommended blue-and-white surgical masks.
After delays and requests denied due to no or low inventory, Sprehe said it's a relief to get more supplies.
"We went from 'I don't know if we're going to get any,' to 'shipped,'" she said.
In addition to the free at-home tests from the borough, SEARHC is offering drive-up, walk-up, no-appointment-necessary testing at the entrance to the hospital.
However, the no-appointment testing ends Monday, when the state contract expires. After Monday, testing will be available by appointment and SEARHC has said it will bill an individual's insurer.
Cases are surging statewide as the Omicron variant has moved into Alaska, health officials said. Monday's report showed almost 5,800 new cases over the weekend and more than 32,000 cases in the past 14 days, setting daily records during that period.
As of Monday morning, there were just six intensive-care beds available at Anchorage hospitals, according to reports provided in a call of health care administrators.
The pandemic death toll continues to climb in Alaska, and was at 1,072 as of Monday, including three more deaths reported in Ketchikan, bringing that community's total to 18, according to the state's statistics.
In addition to Wrangell, record numbers of infections are hitting other Southeast communities, too. Ketchikan last Friday reported 85 new cases in the previous 48 hours, a record, with 360 infections recorded for the past seven days as of Tuesday.
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