Rashah McChesney

A Fairbanks woman in her 80s died of COVID-19 on Tuesday. Since March, 19 Alaskans have died from the virus.  

And data shows that COVID-19 is spreading fast enough that by some measures, Alaska has the highest transmission rate in the nation. 

State health officials reported 94 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday. That includes 92 residents and 2 non-residents. 

The majority of the new cases, 42, are residents of Municipality of Anchorage. But there are also 11 from the Valdez-Cordova Census Area, 10 from the Fairbanks North Star Borough, eight from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, seven from Juneau, three from the Kenai Peninsula Borough, three from the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, three from Ketchikan, two from Sitka, one from the North Slope Borough and two who have no home community listed. 

Of the two new non-resident cases, one is in Eagle River and the state has not yet identified where the other is from. 

Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled Koyukuk. 

A Bering Sea trawler currently docked in Dutch Harbor has reported six cases of COVID-19 among its 119 crew members, officials said Friday.

The cases are onboard the American Triumph, which is operated by Seattle-based American Seafoods.

Last month, the company announced that more than 100 crew members on three of the company’s six vessels had tested positive for the virus.

At the time, experts questioned the company’s decision to mandate a five-day quarantine period, rather than the 14 days recommended by many health officials. American Seafoods subsequently said it had extended its quarantine period to two weeks.

The cases announced Friday bring the total tally of positive cases on American Seafoods vessels to 123 since late May, according to spokesperson Suzanne Lagoni.

The American Triumph is a 285-foot factory trawler, with an onboard processing plant. It had been at sea since June 27, fishing both offshore from Washington and Oregon and then moving to Alaska to fish for pollock in the Bering Sea, Lagoni said.

The vessel arrived in Unalaska/Dutch Harbor on Thursday to offload frozen fish. All crew members arriving in Unalaska had been on the vessel for at least 14 days, she said.

Seven crew members had reported symptoms consistent with COVID-19 and were tested in Unalaska upon arrival, Unalaska’s city government said in a statement. Six of those crew members tested positive, and all seven have been placed in isolation, though the city did not say where.

The 112 people still on board will be screened and tested for the virus Friday by medical staff from Iliuliuk Family and Health Services. The vessel’s crew is barred from leaving the boat, except for the screening and testing, the city said.

“Our primary concern is the safety and health of all our crew members and the community of Unalaska. We deeply appreciate the support of the city and the IFHS clinic, and we are fully cooperating with them,” American Seafoods CEO Mikel Durham was quoted as saying in the city’s statement.

In advance of the summer fishing season in Alaska, seafood companies developed mitigation plans to prevent the spread of COVID-19 as it swept across the globe. And none of the other companies that operate huge Bering Sea factory processing vessels have announced cases of the virus among their crews.

But last month’s outbreak on American Seafoods’ vessels brought to light what can go wrong when dozens of crew live in tight quarters.

The American Triumph had four crew members test positive for COVID-19 in June, before the company extended its required quarantine period to two weeks. The company now says that before boarding, all new crew members must undergo a series of testing and screening procedures, including two nasal swab PCR tests and the 14-day quarantine.

Unalaska’s city government is not concerned about community spread at this time and will not be increasing its assessment of the local risk level — which is currently set at “medium” — due to the “ability to effectively isolate any positive persons,” its statement said.

“We offer our best wishes to the individuals who have recently been diagnosed,” said City Manager Erin Reinders. “We remind all community members to remain diligent in practicing personal protective measures — wash your hands, stay six feet from other people, wear face coverings in public, don’t touch your face, and keep your social circles small. Please continue to show compassion and kindness to others in this challenging time.”

An Anchorage woman has died as state health officials identified 78 new cases of COVID-19 among Alaskans and non-residents by Friday.

That brings the total number of cases among Alaskans or people in Alaska to 2,159. Of those, 1,335 are still sick.

The woman who died was in her 50s and had pre-existing conditions according to state health officials. She is the 18th Alaskan to have died with COVID-19.

Of the new cases among residents the majority, 33, are from Anchorage Municipality. There are 9 new cases among residents of Fairbanks, 8 new cases among residents of the Kenai Peninsula Borough, 6 from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, 2 from the Valdez-Cordova Census Area, 1 from Utquiagvik, 2 from Juneau and 1 from Ketchikan.

Among residents, the majority of active cases in the state — 504 of them — are from the Municipality of Anchorage. But there are also 196 Fairbanks North Star Borough residents and 136 Kenai Peninsula Borough residents with active infections. Resident cases are reported by where they are from which is not necessarily where people are located.

However, nonresident cases are reported by where they are currently located. New nonresident cases have been identified in tourists in Anchorage, a group of seafood workers in Unalaska as well as people in the Denali Borough, the Fairbanks North Star Borough and Juneau.

Cumulatively, among non-residents who are still sick, 68 are in the Bristol Bay and Lake and Peninsula Region, 63 are in Anchorage. There are also hot spots in the Valdez-Cordova Census area, with 32 active non-resident cases and in Fairbanks where 23 people are currently sick.

In other data, hospitals are reporting that 26 people who are currently being treated have either tested positive for COVID-19 or are waiting on test results.

Of those, at least one is in Juneau according to the city’s emergency operations center.

To date, more than 168,000 tests have been performed in the state, however there are reports that the testing lab in Anchorage is operating at half capacity due to a supply issue with one of its machines. It is expected to take longer to get results back in the coming days, though the lab should have that issue resolved by early next week.

Additionally, contact-tracing is strained statewide. Juneau’s Emergency Operations Center reports that the Department of Health and Social Services has begun doing limited contact tracing investigations for people who are low risk.

An employee at Juneau’s Bartlett Regional Hospital has tested positive for COVID-19. 

The case was one of 51 new resident cases state health officials identified on Thursday. 

Bartlett spokesperson Katie Bausler said they don’t believe any patients were exposed. 

“The staff member didn’t go into patient rooms,” she said. 

But, there are other hospital staff who may have been exposed. They are being tested for the virus, she said.

Cumulatively, 47 Juneau residents have tested positive for COVID-19 and a total of six non-residents who are in Juneau. According to a press release from the city, public health nurses are tracking 57 people in the City and Borough of Juneau who have been in close contact with someone who has a confirmed case. 

Marcella Livemond, a 69-year-old woman from Freehold, New Jersey died in May. She was living in a long-term nursing facility where she had contracted COVID-19. 

She was not a Juneau resident. 

“She’s never lived here, ever. She visited here one time,” said Juneau resident Colleen Torrence.

Torrence is Livemond’s niece.  She’s also her power of attorney.

“So her mailing address was in Juneau and when she passed the funeral director who… It’s complicated but it’s a New York funeral director working with a New Jersey funeral director — something got lost in translation between residence and mailing addresses,” Torrence said.

When Torrence got her aunt’s death certificate a few weeks ago, it had her Juneau address on it and not her aunt’s New Jersey address. Torrence said she has been working to correct the error ever since, and she says it feels like a task as big as an Act of Congress. 

“…It’s taking four weeks, easily. Like, the form is just now going to be submitted by the funeral directors as a data entry error,” she said.

But, Torrence suspects that data entry error has had widespread implications. 

Torrence thinks Livemond’s death was reported as an Alaska resident dying out of state.  In late June, state health officials reported that two Juneau residents had died out of state. One of them was in New Jersey.

The State’s Department of Health and Social Services won’t directly confirm that Torrence’s case is linked to the Juneau death that it reported. So, Torrence says there is a possibility — however slight — that the data error she’s dealing with is not the same case that the state reported.  

“Granted, I could be putting two and two together and getting five but it seems really odd and very rare that a Juneau resident would have died in early May in a long term facility that, you know, would have been linked, you know, to any Juneau resident. So I found it likely that it’s probably my aunt,” Torrence said.

Alaska hasn’t reported as many COVID-19 related deaths as other states. It currently stands at 17. More than 15,000 people from New Jersey have died. 

But, Torrence says the error is important to correct because so many people are following the COVID-19 numbers closely. This state is like one big small town and people want to know who from their community has died. 

“I knew it being a small town, like I say in Juneau … when it flies out there, people are definitely wanting to know,” she said.

There are also other consequences. 

Torrence says she’s the executor of her aunt’s estate. And, when she saw the error on the death certificate,  she suspected it might be problematic because the court in New Jersey might not recognize her aunt as a resident anymore. 

“That would have produced a really big issue and in fact it has, so my prediction was accurate,” she said.

So, she contacted the State of Alaska and New Jersey and she’s waiting on both of them to get the error fixed. 

For now, Torrence says she’s done everything she can. 

On Tuesday, state health officials identified another 49 cases of COVID-19 — 40 residents and 9 non-residents. That brings the total number of cases among Alaskans to 1,226 with 646 active infections and 563 people who have recovered.

Of those cases, most of them, 17, are in Anchorage. But there are also new cases among residents of the Kenai Peninsula Borough, the Valdez-Cordova Census area, the Fairbanks North Star Borough, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, the Northwest Arctic Borough, the Kusilvak Census Area and Aleutians West Census Area

Among non-residents, two are in Anchorage, two are in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, one is in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough, two in the Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula region and one in Juneau.

Cumulatively, the state has seen 248 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 upon arriving in Alaska, among them there are 188 active cases and 60 people have recovered.

Data from state hospitals shows that 30 people are currently in the hospital who have COVID-19 or who are suspected to have the disease and are awaiting test results. None of them is on a ventilator.

The state COVID-19 dashboard showed a large drop in the number of available inpatients beds on Wednesday, from 1,800 to 1,400.

But Jared Kosin, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association said that’s not a physical drop in the number of hospital beds available. Rather, it was changed to accurately reflect the beds a COVID-19 patient is likely to end up in if they get sick and need to go to the hospital.

“Before the data had inpatient beds from our behavioral health facilities, it had inpatient beds from some of our specialty facilities. That is now being, essentially filtered out,” Kosin said. “So what you’re seeing on the dashboard is our most operationally practical available bed capacity on a daily basis. Now, you’re truly only seeing the hospital inpatient beds where an admission would occur.

But, that also doesn’t mean that the state only has 1,400 inpatient beds available.

Kosin said, if there’s a rush of COVID-19 patients, some of those other types of hospital beds could be repurposed to accommodate them.

“So, if I have a surge plan where I have an extra 50 beds ready if I need them — if I put those into operation and they’re a part of my daily capacity then that would feed into those numbers eventually,” he said.

In addition to the cases reported on Wednesday, an inmate at the Fairbanks Correctional Center has tested positive for COVID-19. According to a Department of Corrections media release, that person was in quarantine when the positive test result came back. So, they expect exposure to other inmates and staff to be limited.

The inmate was screened as part of new measures in place at correctional facilities in the state — including testing of all new inmates that began on July 1. In addition to the testing, new inmates are also quarantined for 14 days before joining the general population of the correctional facilities, according to the release.

To date, the Department of Corrections has administered 1,268 tests with 964 negatives and 300 pending.

 

Correction: A previous version of this story undercounted the number of non-residents. There were 9 new non-resident cases identified by the end of the day Tuesday. The headline and first paragraph of the story have been updated accordingly.