Updated — Friday, Aug. 20, 2:37 p.m.
The highly transmissible delta variant is taking a toll and Juneau’s incident commander Mila Cosgrove said they want to get ahead of it.
“We do not want to get into a situation where our hospitals are completely overwhelmed or we’re unable to keep up,” she said.
Starting at 5 p.m. Friday, stricter mitigation measures will be in place. Indoor gatherings will be limited to 20 people — masks are required and social distancing is recommended outside, but Cosgrove said some exceptions are possible.
“We want to work with the community,” Cosgrove said. “We don’t want to stop life altogether, but right now, mixed groups of vaccinated and unvaccinated folks with masks off is not a very good idea.”
Vaccinated people are still testing positive at a lower rate than those who haven’t had the shot. They’re also less likely to be hospitalized or die from the virus.
“We are tired of COVID too, but being tired of something doesn’t make it go away. We can’t wish it away. We are still very much in a pandemic and it’s not the time to let our guard down,” she said.
Beginning Monday, there will be some changes to city services. Libraries will have reduced hours and there may be other changes, as the city reassigns staff members to emergency operations.
At Bartlett Regional Hospital, beds are limited and they’re struggling to get seriously ill patients flown out of town. The hospital is looking to protect inpatient beds by suspending elective surgeries.
Right now, Juneau’s test positivity rate — the number of positive cases compared to the total number of people tested — was 6%. That means there could be undetected COVID-19 cases in the community.
More than 82% of eligible Juneau residents have had their first COVID-19 shot, but regardless of vaccination status, Cosgrove says people should still get tested.
“If you test at our local testing center, you will have your results in under 24 hours. You can also test at private providers in town,” Cosgrove said. “If you are symptomatic, do not go to the airport to test. We do not want symptomatic people in the airport.”
Unvaccinated people who work around other unvaccinated populations are eligible for weekly screenings — even if they don’t have symptoms — at the Hagevig Regional Fire Training Center.
People are encouraged to decrease time spent with people outside of their household and get tested five days after being exposed to someone who is positive for the virus.
The city is also in regular communication with the cruise lines, but most of the recent cases have been among Juneau residents.
Bars and restaurants will be at 50% capacity indoors and close at 11 p.m. Cosgrove says she believes that’s enough and doesn’t expect to completely close any public spaces.
“I think we would have to see a variant that made fully vaccinated people very ill before we would get to a full hunker down order, which would essentially place us back to the beginning of the pandemic,” Cosgrove said.
Planning is underway for public health clinics to offer COVID-19 booster shots. Beginning in September, those who are eight months out from their second dose will be eligible for those. If you’re immunocompromised, you can get a third shot now.
Children ages 5 to 11 could be approved for the shot by November.
“We got used to behaving as if we weren’t in the middle of a pandemic and I think that caught up with us,” she said.
Ultimately, Cosgrove says she hopes the new restrictions are short-lived.
Original story
Juneau emergency officials have raised the community risk to Level 3: High with all mitigation efforts in place.
This comes as the delta variant of the coronavirus spreads rapidly, locally and statewide. City officials say Juneau is averaging between 16 and 17 new cases per day this month, which is the highest rate the area has experienced since the beginning of the pandemic. Last month’s average was around seven new cases per day.
Prior to Wednesday night’s announcement, Juneau was at a modified high risk level with only masks required for mitigation.
New, stricter measures go into effect at 5 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 20. That means:
- Masks are required in all public indoor areas and in public outdoor areas where 6 feet of distancing cannot be maintained.
- Indoor gatherings should be limited to 20 people with masks required, but there is no size limit if all individuals are fully vaccinated. Six feet of distancing is recommended for outdoor gatherings.
- Bars and restaurants cannot exceed 50% capacity indoors, they must maintain 6 feet of distance between patrons, maintain a list of customers, and close at 11 p.m.
- Personal services must be by appointment only with no waiting areas.
- Gyms cannot exceed 50% capacity and indoor classes should be limited to fully vaccinated individuals.
Over the past two weeks, more than 260 people tested positive for COVID-19 in Juneau. There were also three deaths — all were being treated for COVID-19 at Bartlett Regional Hospital.
While there have been up to seven people with COVID-19 at Juneau’s hospital at a time, it’s not over patient capacity. But city officials say staffing shortages and supply chain issues will make treating COVID patients more difficult at Bartlett as hospitalizations increase. Also, as hospitals in Anchorage and Seattle fill up, critically ill patients won’t be able to be medevaced from Juneau.
While Juneau’s vaccination rate is high – and individuals who are fully vaccinated are less likely to develop severe illness requiring hospitalization – city officials say there is still a high case positivity in the unvaccinated populations, including children who are unable to be vaccinated.
The city will answer questions about the community’s COVID-19 risk level on Friday at 9 a.m. during a press conference. Representatives from the city, the hospital and Juneau’s public health department will be available. You can watch on this post or join on Zoom or call 1-253-215-8782 and use the webinar ID: 955 7921 9941.
This story was updated after a third death at Bartlett Regional Hospital was announced on Thursday. A previous version of this story said that the alert level is the highest level, but there is a Very High level, too. The story has been corrected.
