KOTZ - Kotzebue

A Kotzebue resident has tested positive for COVID-19, according to Maniilaq Association. That marks the third case in the city and fourth in Maniilaq’s service area, which covers the Northwest Arctic Borough and the village of Point Hope.

In a release, Maniilaq officials said “we believe the 4th case is due to community spread from a previous case.” On Thursday, a separate positive test result came back from the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage for an individual who arrived in Kotzebue on Monday.

Maniilaq provided little additional details on the case, but advised residents to take additional precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. That includes staying home, practicing social distancing, washing hands frequently and avoiding large gatherings.

 

A third person has tested positive for COVID-19 in the Northwest Arctic Borough according to Maniilaq Association, the regional health care provider.

The individual arrived in Kotzebue on Monday, June 1. They were tested upon arrival, and the results came back positive on Thursday from the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage. While results from performing a rapid test can be processed the same day by Maniilaq, health officials recently said they have a shortage of those tests.

Maniilaq officials say once the person was located, they were brought to the local respiratory clinic before being taken to the Nullagvik hotel where they are quarantining.

Officials are still conducting contact tracing to see if the individual came into contact with anybody while in Kotzebue.

This is the second positive case of COVID-19 to occur in Kotzebue, and the third in the Maniilaq service area, which covers the Northwest Arctic Borough and the village of Point Hope. The first case in Kotzebue was on May 20; the second regional case occurred when a resident of the village of Kivalina tested positive in Anchorage the same week.

Note: An earlier version of this story said that the first case of COVID-19 in Kotzebue was on March 20. It was on May 20. The story has been corrected.

A resident from the North Slope Borough has tested positive for COVID-19. This is the first positive case in the region.

According to a release from the Arctic Slope Native Association, the patient had been tested at the Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital in Utqiagvik on May 22. The patient had been in Anchorage, before traveling to Utqiagvik and then on to their home community. For the patient’s privacy, the name of the community was withheld.

Samuel Simmonds Hospital is preparing a team of medical officials to go to the patient’s community to provide testing to anyone who may have come in contact with the individual.

While this is the first case for a resident of the North Slope, a BP worker at Prudhoe Bay tested positive for the virus in March.

The case is one of more than 400 positive cases of COVID-19 across Alaska.

This is a developing story and may be updated when new information becomes available.

After being kept away from their communities due to coronavirus concerns, Red Dog Mine employees have been allowed to return home.

In March, shortly after COVID-19 health mandates began in the state, flights were suspended from the mine in the Northwest Arctic Borough to surrounding communities. Mine workers were given the option to quarantine in Anchorage, where they could stay with family or use housing approved by the mining company, Teck Alaska Inc. Workers had the option to extend their shift rotations at the mine site, about 90 miles north of Kotzebue.

This week, Teck announced that employees are allowed to return to their home communities under the conditions that they test negative for COVID-19 and adhere to local health protocols.

The change comes as the Northwest Arctic Borough began slowly lifting its “hunker down” mandate. Intrastate travel between communities is now permitted for critical and necessary travel. That includes traveling for health purposes, subsistence, child custody and obtaining goods not available locally.

Additionally, restaurants in the Northwest Arctic Borough can begin allowing dine-in services, however it can only be by reservation. Walk-in dining is prohibited. Restaurants are limited to ten customers for dining indoors.

To date, there have been two positive cases of COVID-19 in the Northwest Arctic Borough.

The first positive case of COVID-19 was found in Kotzebue according to Maniilaq Association, the regional health care provider.

The positive case came from someone who traveled to Kotzebue via Alaska Airlines Tuesday afternoon. Kotzebue City Manager Jeff Congdon says the individual had arrived at the Ralph Wien Airport and was en route to a village community in the region.

“[The individual] voluntarily took the COVID-19 test at the airport and tested positive and has been quarantined in Kotzebue,” Congdon said.

Congdon says that there are other passengers on the flight who may have interacted with the individual who tested positive. They are also quarantining in Kotzebue.

“Maniilaq is doing tests and monitoring those individuals and also doing contact tracing on the individual who tested positive to find out any other information that they can,” Congdon said.

Contact tracing is a term from the Centers for Disease Control that means identifying who an infected person may have had contact with.

The Northwest Arctic Borough was set to amend its local health mandate to slowly open up the borough from its previous “hunker down” mandate on Tuesday evening. After the first positive COVID-19 case occurred, the Borough announced that it was retracting the latest mandate and amending and extending its “hunker down” mandate, to last through May 31.

Included in the extended mandate is a borough-wide curfew from 12:01 a.m. to 6 a.m.

Northwest Arctic Borough Mayor Lucy Nelson says that the person who tested positive is not a resident of the borough. She says the fact that a resident of the borough has not yet tested positive shows how effective the borough’s health mandates have been.

“When we put this hunkering down into place, it was to slow and prevent this disease from entering and growing,” Nelson said. “So it’s really important that people follow these practices of distancing, of wearing masks, washing your hands.”

This is the first positive case of COVID-19 in the Northwest Arctic Borough, and one of roughly 400 positive cases statewide. The borough has about 7,600 citizens from Kotzebue and ten smaller village communities.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

The pilot of a charter plane is dead after crashing near Teshekpuk Lake southeast of Utqiagvik Thursday night.

The North Slope Borough Search and Rescue Department received a distress signal between 9 p.m. and midnight, says spokesperson D.J. Fauske. Fauske says pilot Jim Webster of Fairbanks charter company Webster’s Flying Service died in the crash.

Fauske says Search and Rescue found one passenger alive: Ben Jones, a researcher with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Institute of Northern Engineering. A rescue helicopter brought Jones to Utqiagvik.

“Ben is recovering in Utqiagvik at our hospital there, with multiple fractures,” Fauske said. “(He’s) expected to recover, but obviously severely injured.”

Fauske says Jones and Webster were the only two on the plane. UAF spokeswoman Marmian Grimes says Jones was conducting research at the Teshekpuk Lake Observatory. Jones’s research primarily deals with permafrost and arctic water systems. Grimes didn’t know if Jones was heading towards or away from the research site when the crash occurred.

Fauske says the National Transportation Safety Board is coordinating an investigation into the crash with the North Slope Borough. And he says flying conditions were very bad and foggy when the distress beacon was received.

Fauske says it was important that Webster had a special international beacon that was compatible with the borough’s search and rescue equipment.

“They were able to locate them because of that device,” Fauske said. “Without that device, it was still bright out since it’s that time of year, but it would be very difficult.”

North Slope Borough Mayor Harry Brower thanked search and rescue for recovering Jones, and he sent prayers to Webster’s family.