Jennifer Pemberton

Starting Tuesday, COVID-19 tests taken at Juneau’s airport will be processed at a private lab rather than the state’s lab.

The samples will still be taken at the airport using a non-invasive nasal swab, but they will go to a commercial lab in Southern California, according to a press release from the City and Borough of Juneau. The hope is that the switch will help lessen the burden of tests coming into the state lab in Fairbanks, reduce costs for the city and reduce the wait time for results.

Results have been taking four to five days on average to get back from the state lab. Results from the new lab are expected to take two to four days.

Travelers arriving at the Juneau International Airport from out of state still need proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of arriving or to take a test at the airport and quarantine until they get results back. Testing is free for Alaska residents or $250 for nonresidents.

A free second test 5-14 days after arrival for residents and nonresidents is optional.

Alaska’s health mandate that lays out the travel restrictions was revised in mid-October. It requires travelers to the state to follow strict social distancing guidelines while waiting for their test results. This includes not entering public buildings or attending group activities or gatherings.

In this newscast:

• Six more Alaskans die of COVID-19
• Juneau airport scores big FAA grant for construction
• Jury trials resume in Alaska after 8-month hiatus
• The ‘Into the Wild’ bus finds a permanent home
• Alaska Native Corporations are not eligible for CARES Act tribal funds

In this newscast:

• The Glory Hall closed after 2 people experiencing homelessness tested positive for COVID-19
• The NPS has released additional information about fatal brown bear attack in Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve
• An explanation of Alaska’s ballot measure 2
• An update on the financial losses the ferry system has experienced

In this newscast:

• A brown bear was killed in Anchorage after breaking into the Alaska zoo and killing an alpaca
• A resident of the Northwest Arctic village of Kiana has tested positive for COVID-19 after coming back from the Red Dog Mine
• It’s been a month now that students in the Mat-Su Borough have been going to school in person
• Bethel buzzed with excitement after two F-16 fighter jets made an emergency landing at the airport
• Alaskans can expect a slightly colder than usual winter this year if NOAA’s predictions of a La Nina year hold out

The Alaska cruise season met its demise last week, just a few days after it started.

The only ship to sail in the state during the pandemic had to turn around halfway through its first trip after a passenger got a call that he had tested positive for COVID-19.

All 36 passengers aboard the Wilderness Adventurer, operated by Seattle-based Uncruise, were quarantined at a local Juneau hotel.

Most of those guests have now been cleared to go home. But the passenger who tested positive is still serving out a 14-day isolation period in Juneau despite later testing negative.

On a call with reporters Thursday, Uncruise CEO Dan Blanchard said it’s tempting to believe the test at the airport was a false positive.

“Maybe it would be easy to land on saying this is a false positive because we’d be able to point our finger at a test or something,” he said. “But the reality is that it’s not that simple.”

Blanchard says he’s choosing to stand with the doctors and epidemiologists who consistently treat positive tests results — especially when they come from the type of tests used by the state lab — as positive cases.

“So, you know, the bottom line is, when we get a positive COVID test, let’s say from the airport, we consider that patient to be positive,” said Alaska State Epidemiologist Dr. Joe McLaughlin.

And what about the fact that the passenger on the Uncruise ship tested negative just 3 days after testing positive?

“So, somebody who gets a subsequent test that’s negative doesn’t mean that the previous test was a false positive,” explained McLaughlin. “It probably means that the person was tested somewhere further down in their course of infection and didn’t have enough virus in their respiratory secretions to trigger a positive test.”

The state approved Uncruise’s plan to operate during the pandemic. All passengers were sent at-home COVID-19 tests a few days before the trip and had to arrive in Alaska with a negative test result in hand in order to board the ship.

There was no transmission of the virus among passengers and crew, and none showed any signs or experienced any symptoms of infection.

But the damage is done. The Wilderness Adventurer is sailing back to the shipyard in Seattle. Most of the passengers are either home or on their way home, and the company has canceled the rest of its trips for the year.

The passenger who tested positive for coronavirus aboard the only cruise ship to sail in Alaska during the pandemic does not have COVID-19, according to the ship’s operator.

Last week the Wilderness Adventurer, operated by Uncruise, turned around halfway through its first trip of the season after a passenger got a call saying he had tested positive for COVID-19 at the Juneau airport.

It’s unclear at this time how the passenger received the positive test and why he was later cleared. The test was processed at a state lab, and according to Mila Cosgrove, who heads up Juneau’s emergency operation, a false positive from the type of test conducted at the airport is “highly unlikely.”

The ship returned to Juneau, where all passengers quarantined at a local hotel. The crew of the boat quarantined on board the vessel.

The Wilderness Adventurer left for a shipyard in Seattle after state health officials tested and cleared the crew, according to Dan Blanchard, the company’s CEO.

Blanchard says the majority of the ship’s passengers have tested negative and been released from quarantine, but there are still some passengers awaiting test results.

Uncruise had four additional sailings planned for this season, but those have all been canceled.

This is a developing story. New information will be added when it is available.

Note: The headline for this story has been changed: The original headline — “Uncruise says Wilderness Adventurer did not have COVID-19 on board after all” was incorrect. The passenger tested positive on board, but has since tested negative.