Update | 7:12 p.m.
The City and Borough of Juneau is offering free COVID-19 tests to people who may have been exposed but don’t have symptoms. Testing appointments begin Thursday.
These asymptomatic tests are for people who work with the public regularly, or spent 10 minutes unmasked indoors with people outside their immediate household. You can sign up for a test through the city’s website, or through the city’s COVID screening hotline at 586-6000.
“We know that COVID can spread asymptomatically. It’s one of the reasons this is a particularly insidious and sneaky virus,” said Robert Barr, the city’s emergency operations planning chief.
He said they put this temporary event together because they’ve got the testing and staff capacity to do it now as case counts are rising.
The city’s free, asymptomatic tests will be available until Dec. 13, but it may end earlier if demand is low.
Barr and other city officials spoke during the city’s weekly COVID-19 community update on Tuesday. One graph during the presentation showed a steeply rising trend curve by month. New case counts in November averaged over nine a day, almost three times as high as in July.
City Manager Rorie Watt said that more of the new cases appear to be coming through community spread. Meaning, unlike earlier known clusters and spreader events, public health workers can’t figure out the chain of transmission among many of the newer cases.
“We know less about their origin,” Watt said.
Watt said that means there aren’t specific clusters of people to target with information and behavior changes to curb the spread.
“You know, we need a broader message for the community to continually try to limit transmission.”
City officials also encouraged liberal use of testing for people with symptoms, even mild ones, to catch and limit the spread early.
They discouraged indoor holiday gatherings beyond immediate household members. But, for people holding bigger events, Watt said to be COVID conscious.
“What’s your family holiday mitigation plan?” he asked. “If you have family members who are traveling and coming to visit you, how are you going to work together as a family and manage that situation so that it doesn’t turn into, you know, a transmission route?”
Barr also flagged this new city web page that answers a lot of questions about travel obligations amid the pandemic.
“What anyone should do traveling into Juneau, out of Juneau, on a ferry, on a ferry into state or out of state. You’re a non-resident and what that means versus if you’re a resident. So we gamed all of that out,” Barr said.
Finally, much of the funding for the city’s COVID-19 response came through the federal CARES Act. That money expires at the end of the year. Watt said the city plans to keep its COVID services going in 2021. He said the Juneau Assembly will consider funding them later this month with city money, in hopes that more federal relief money will eventually pick up the tab.
City officials identified 15 new cases in Juneau on Tuesday. Bartlett Regional Hospital is down to only two free beds in its nine-bed critical care unit.
The city’s risk level remains high. The city’s COVID measures require masks be worn indoors, limit bar and restaurant capacity to half capacity, and gyms and personal service providers to quarter capacity.
Original post | 3:45 p.m.
The City and Borough of Juneau announced today that it’s offering free COVID-19 tests to people without symptoms who may have been exposed. Testing appointments begin Thursday.
These asymptomatic tests are for people who work with the public regularly or spent 10 minutes unmasked indoors with people outside their immediate household. You can sign up for a test online, or through the city’s COVID screening hotline at 586-6000.
The city says these tests will be available until Dec. 13, but may end earlier depending on demand.
City officials are expected to discuss this and other COVID-19 issues during the weekly community update at 4 p.m. today. You can watch on the City and Borough of Juneau’s Facebook page or on Zoom.
Emergency officials identified 15 new cases in Juneau on Tuesday. Bartlett Regional Hospital is down to only two free beds in its nine-bed critical care unit.
The city’s risk level remains high. The city’s COVID measures require masks be worn indoors, limit bar and restaurant capacity to half capacity, and gyms and personal service providers to quarter capacity.
