Gov. Mike Dunleavy and public health officials held a news conference Friday to discuss preparation and response to the coronavirus.
The governor announced the first public health mandates related to the coronavirus.
Beginning Monday until March 30, all school days at K-12 public schools “will be non-student contact days in which students will not be attending schools.” After-school activities will also be suspended. But staff will still go to schools.
Dunleavy’s announcement also came with several access restrictions to state facilities. The public health mandate is available here.
A guard signs several visitors from KTOO in at the Lemon Creek Correctional Center in Juneau on June 18, 2016. (Photo by Rashah McChesney/KTOO)
In order to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the Alaska Department of Corrections suspended all visits to facilities across the state from outside volunteers, friends and family, effective immediately. Visits from chaplains and contract services for education and treatment programs will continue for now.
The prison system has not seen any cases of coronavirus disease yet.
Alaska has more than 4,700 inmates statewide. As of this week, 327 of those inmates were over the age of 55. Health officials say older adults are particularly vulnerable to the virus, especially if they have underlying conditions.
The state has a unified system for prisons and jails, meaning inmates serving long sentences live under the same roof as those with short stints. The constant circulation of new people in and out of facilities means there’s more potential to spread disease.
“It’s not unreasonable to think that, that someone in prison could present with the symptoms,” said Dr. Robert Lawrence, chief medical officer for the Department of Corrections. He said prisons are a lot like nursing homes and college dorms.
“So we are constantly thinking about how do we protect this group of people who are living so close together from the rapid spread of infectious disease?” Lawrence said.
In many ways, preparing for coronavirus means using the same policies prisons already rely on to monitor for highly-infectious diseases like tuberculosis. Every facility in the state has its own medical staff.
In Juneau, Lemon Creek Correctional Center Superintendent Bob Cordle wrote in an email that staff placed flyers in all living units and common areas to educate inmates about how to stay healthy.
Lemon Creek has 248 prisoners and 76 staff.
Cordle wrote that the facility has a committee in charge of preparing for a potential outbreak. Lemon Creek has the ability to isolate anyone showing symptoms of the virus, but it doesn’t have rooms that limit contamination through the air supply system.
If community transmission begins to occur in Alaska, nearby DOC facilities may further restrict visitors. If coronavirus is transmitted within a facility, movement inside would also be limited to restrict contact between people.
Lawrence said protecting inmates inside also means protecting the population as a whole. But they know limiting visitation is hard on prisoners and their families.
“There’s a full recognition that everybody who’s incarcerated today in Alaska is connected to a family and … there are many families in Alaska who have or know someone who is currently incarcerated,” he said. “So there’s loved ones on both sides.”
DOC will reevaluate all protocols and procedures in 30 days.
(Poster by Ḵaaḵal.aat Florence Sheakley, Ḵaanáḵ Ruth Demmert, and X̱ʼunei Lance Twitchell)
Alaska Native and tribal health organizations take the wellness of their communities pretty seriously. Many of them are taking a precautionary approach to coronavirus — but their biggest piece of advice is this: Don’t panic.
About 130 miles northeast of Fairbanks, in the city of Fort Yukon, health providers at the Yukon Flats Health Center diligently wash their hands, use hand sanitizer — and continue to pass along healthy hygiene recommendations to patients.
Debra McCarty has been the clinic director at the health center for about 10 years.
“We’re pretty much up to this point business as usual,” McCarty said by phone. “We’re ordering enough supplies so the staff can have handy wipes and gloves at their workstations and wipe them down themselves every day, in addition to … the regular infection control that our janitorial staff are doing.”
The health center is a part of the Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments — a consortium of 10 villages. Five of those villages fall under the health program, which McCarty said serves about 1,200 people in the region.
The biggest hurdle the health center faces, she said, is combatting misinformation.
“Our main goal is just to kind of educate everybody, let them know what we’re doing and that we’re prepared,” McCarty said. “We’re really trying to make sure that our community members, our patients and our chief and counsels are not getting overly paranoid and just kind of really listening to the facts and then getting their information from the CDC through us.”
McCarty said the health center has about two teleconferences daily, either from the Tanana Chiefs Conference, Indian Health Services or Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.
Currently, the health center can test for COVID-19, but they have to send it to the state to determine whether further testing is necessary.
“If there’s a chance that somebody has COVID-19, they’re going to self-quarantine at home and we’re just going to treat everybody that way,” McCarty said. “And anybody who has any increased respiratory issues that need admission, well, obviously, medevac will be called and they’ll be sent in.”
McCarty said no programs or services have been suspended because of the potential for coronavirus.
In Southeast Alaska though, some Elder programs are being temporarily suspended as a precaution.
The Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska made the decision to suspend several social events for seniors through March. Tlingit and Haida wellness coordinator Justin Jones said the move was a proactive one to protect Elders from potential risk of illness.
“It’s very much at the forefront of everyone’s minds and the concerns,” Jones said. ” So it just came down to making sure that they feel safe, and we don’t want to put them in a situation where they’re concerned, where our staff would be concerned.”
In lieu of the regularly scheduled gatherings, Jones said Tlingit and Haida will deliver lunches to Elders, as well as care packages of thermometers, soap and hand sanitizer.
“It’s just really making sure that the Elders understand that we care for them and that they are valued,” Jones said. “We’re looking to have that from a health perspective. … And just keeping our personal health a top priority.”
Francine Eddy Jones is the director of Tlingit and Haida’s Tribal Family Services. She said there are other groups and gatherings for families that some Elders will participate in. But Tlingit and Haida plans to continue to assess the risk of illness and take as much precaution as possible.
“I think as a Native community, being proactive and taking precautions is definitely the message we’d like to give,” she said. “And I think how can we collectively do that across our Native communities is important.”
Jones said once the tribe has more information, it will reassess whether — and how — future programs will be affected.
In Hoonah, Tlingit language teacher Lgéikʼi Heather Powell made signs instructing Hoonah City Schools students and staff in Lingít to wash their hands: i jín na.óos’.
“My students will be posting them throughout the school today in an effort to be informed and proactive,” said Powell, who is also director of the Alaska Native education program Haa Kusteeyi Áyá, or This is Who We Are, for Hoonah City Schools.
Ḵaaḵal.aat Florence Sheakley, Ḵaanáḵ Ruth Demmert and X̱ʼunei Lance Twitchell also created a poster detailing the steps of proper hand washing.
Calls requesting comment from the Alaska Native Health Board and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium were not returned in time for this story.
The Legislature said in the emailed announcement that it adopted a series of “initial actions” in response to the arrival of the coronavirus in Alaska.
Access to the Capitol will be limited to legislators, employees, members of the governor’s administration and journalists.
Sen. Gary Stevens, a Kodiak Republican, says the step was unprecedented, to his knowledge.
Sen. Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, talks with a reporter in Steven’s office at the Capitol on March 13, 2020, in Juneau. They discussed the legislature’s closure of the Capitol to most members of the public in response to the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Skip Gray/KTOO)
“If there is a progression of this disease throughout Alaska, we will have further restrictions on who has access to the building,” he said.
Stevens chairs the new Legislative Council subcommittee on emergency response and preparedness, which recommended the changes.
The Legislature also enacted a temporary ban on state-sponsored travel by lawmakers and legislative employees. And anyone with access to the Capitol who travels out-of-state on personal business will be advised to stay away from the building for at least seven days after returning.
The announcement said legislative work will continue as normal, with Alaskans able to participate fully by following along on Gavel Alaska and the Legislature’s website, and through written and telephone testimony.
The Capitol closure will be effective as of 5 p.m. Friday.
Alaska Supreme Court Chief Justice Joel Bolger on Sunday ordered that all new jury trials be suspended, building on a directive last week that led to the suspension of trials in half of the state’s judicial districts out of concern over the spread of the novel coronavirus. (Read more)
Update (Friday, March 13, 2:35 p.m.) — Rashah McChesney, KTOO
New jury trials in Anchorage, Kenai and Palmer have been suspended for the week of March 16.
According to a media release from the court system, six jury trials were scheduled and would have required more than 200 potential jurors to assemble.
Jury trials that have already started and grand jury proceedings will continue. Trials scheduled in the the First Judicial District — which encompasses most of Southeast Alaska — and the Fourth Judicial District — which is most of Western Alaska — will also continue as scheduled.
Original story
Alaska Court System officials are considering suspending jury trials or closing courts to slow the potential spread of coronavirus in the state.
Deputy Administrative Director Doug Wooliver said Friday afternoon that they’re ready to make a decision on a moment’s notice.
“We aren’t there yet, but things are developing by the hour,” Wooliver said. “The court is watching very, very closely about how we’re going to be addressing this.”
Wooliver said they are coordinating with judges, court administrative staff and other justice agencies like the state’s Public Defender Agency, Department of Corrections and the Department of Law.
“If they make changes in their policies, or we make changes in our operations, we all affect each other’s (policies and operations),” Wooliver said.
There are some things the court system could do short of closing entirely.
They include things like relaxing the rules on when someone can call into court instead of appearing in person. Grand juries could also be suspended to prevent groups of people from gathering.
But there are some hurdles. Alaska defendants in a criminal case have a right to a speedy trial within 120 days.
Wooliver said if jury trials are suspended, the Alaska Supreme Court will have to issue an emergency order changing or suspending the speedy trial rule.
“You could’ve been waiting for a considerable period of time for your trial in a civil case, for example, and those could all be postponed,” Wooliver said. “Closing down or significantly restricting the justice system would have a profound impact on Alaskans.”
Other states and jurisdictions in the Lower 48 have already suspended jury trials or restricted access to courthouses.
The Alaska Court System is currently asking Alaskans not to come to their local courthouse if they are sick or believe they have been exposed to COVID-19, even if they are scheduled to appear in court or have been summoned for jury service. Instead, court officials say they should call the courthouse to determine next steps.
Legal experts say these restrictions will have a direct effect on Alaska cruise itineraries.
That’s because century-old U.S. maritime laws prohibit international cruise ships from carrying U.S. citizens between American ports like Seattle and Skagway.
“A foreign-flag vessel must stop in a foreign country,” said Joe Geldhof, a Juneau attorney with experience of the cruise industry. “If Vancouver and Victoria are closed, foreign flag cruise ships are going to have an enormous problem with participating in the Alaska trade.”
At least 30 cruise ships and hundreds of port calls across the state will be affected.
“Obviously, anyone would analyze it and look and figure that that will affect some early season cruising in Southeast Alaska,” said Kirby Day, who manages port operations in Juneau for Princess Cruises and Holland America Line.
“Things are moving so fast that they’re looking at a variety of opportunities or options at this point,” Day said. “It’s difficult to speculate now.”
Cruise visitors were projected to pump a lot of money into Alaska’s economy — economists say nearly $800 million.
“This is going to be a tremendous impact to all of us across Southeast Alaska,” said Meilani Schijvens of Rain Coast Data in Juneau. “Because it’s those dollars, but it’s also the multiplier effect of those dollars, and those dollars not going into city coffers and supporting municipalities in terms of providing sales tax revenue to our communities.”
She said cruise ships account for 90% of tourism in Southeast Alaska. June, July and August are peak months.
As schools and public buildings close over efforts to slow the spread of coronavirus, Alaska communities have seen groceries and household items fly off the shelves as public health experts advise people to stock at least two weeks of provisions.
“We are telling people it is business as usual — and to wash their hands,” said Cory Baggen, vice president of Samson Tug & Barge in Sitka. The shipper shares space with Alaska Marine Lines barges to supply goods and heavy freight to coastal communities.
Alaska Marine Lines sent an email to its customers Friday morning saying its barges will continue to run normal schedules.
