Alaska coronavirus news

All three of Haines’ emergency dispatchers have tested positive for COVID-19, but officials say they’ve elected to stay on the job anyway to field 911 calls from the public safety building.

Haines borough manager Annette Kreitzer says the dispatch office’s three-person staff tested positive for COVID-19 last week. She was alerted last Tuesday, Jan. 11 of the situation.

“Of course, our first inclination is to protect employee’s health and to protect the public’s health,” Kreitzer said.

The office fields 911 calls for police and emergency services throughout the Haines borough and coordinates via phone and radio between personnel during service calls. They also manage the Haines jail, maintain call logs and department reports and handle public records requests.

Haines Police Chief Heath Scott was out of town at the time, delayed from returning due to winter weather. But Kreitzer says she consulted with him and the dispatch supervisor on how to proceed.

“First of all, these are essential workers,” she said. “You can’t just have someone walk in off the street and do police or fire dispatch, it just doesn’t work that way. And so what you need to try to do is figure out if they are feeling well enough to work. And if they are, then we need to quarantine them and make sure that they aren’t having any interaction with any other staff, and with the public. And so that was put into place.”

Kreitzer says the team volunteered to keep working so that 911 calls would be answered locally.

“I just want the public to know that we did not ask them to continue working,” she said. “We made it clear that this is your choice. You do not have to work. You know, it was up to them to volunteer to stay on and work through. And that’s what they did.”

Kreitzer says the three infected employees felt well enough to work, but she declined to elaborate on their condition. She says they were instructed to go straight home and isolate after work hours.

Haines Police Chief Heath Scott declined to be interviewed. But in an email to KHNS, he wrote that he has full confidence in the dispatchers who are isolated in an office, asked to wear masks and clean their work station prior to the next dispatcher’s shift. He said they have closed the office to the public and ask residents to avoid stopping at the department in-person unless it’s an emergency.

Chief Scott said he’s proud of the department, and “they understand how important this work is and they accept that responsibility without complaint.”

Kreitzer said if employees had decided not to work or were unable to due to illness, the borough could direct 911 calls to state dispatchers in Fairbanks. Haines has at least one sworn police officer who is trained up.

“If they had not volunteered to work, then that’s when we would have been looking to other agencies,” Kreitzer said. “Or (we) would have brought in, we only have I believe, one other person who’s trained as a dispatcher, who is a police officer. And we would have brought him in to serve in the dispatch position.”

Kreitzer says dispatchers working from home was not an option because of the software and communication technology needed at the public safety building.

When asked what lessons were learned moving forward, Kreitzer says her office would be more prepared to take the appropriate steps to mitigate COVID-19 spread more quickly.

“Well, we don’t really know how the first case started. And so it’s hard to say, ‘Oh, we would do this different, we would do that different,’” Kreitzer said. “But I think that there is a good realization of how quickly things can move if someone becomes ill. And I think we would probably communicate much more quickly the next time.”

Kreitzer says the Haines police and emergency services employees and volunteers get tested regularly, and they are monitoring for any further transmission.

She says the Haines borough recommends but does not require COVID-19 vaccinations and masking for employees.

The number of Alaskans who have died from COVID-19 now tops 1,000.

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services on Wednesday reported an additional 63 resident COVID-19 deaths. Two of them are from the new year, and the rest happened earlier in the pandemic, according to state data. The deaths include Alaskans from Anchorage to Bethel to Utqiaġvik, with the youngest in his 30s and the oldest in her 90s.

Wednesday’s report brings the total number of Alaskan COVID-19 deaths to 1,018.

Also on Wednesday, the state health department reported that it had tallied 10,202 COVID-19 cases in the state since Jan. 14. The daily case count on Tuesday hit a near-record 2,673 cases. That number doesn’t include at-home test results.

Alaska Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink said the spike in cases driven by the omicron variant seems to be tapering off on the East Coast. But here in Alaska, it’s still going strong.

“The West seems to be a little bit behind that, as well as Alaska, where we continue to be on this upward trajectory,” she said during a public update Wednesday from state health officials. “We were a little bit later to this omicron surge in the West as well as here in Alaska, and we continue to see this surge across the state.”

Nationally, Zink said, 99.5% of cases are the omicron variant.

The CDC has said cloth masks are less effective than respirators, like N95s or KN95s, at preventing the spread of omicron. But, Zink said, any mask is still better than no mask.

“Masks and respirators are effective,” she said. “They’re not perfect, but they’re very effective tools at reducing transmission, particularly when they’re worn consistently and correctly.”

Across the state, about 70% of Alaska residents age 18 and up have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 29% have received a booster, according to the health department.

There were 116 COVID patients hospitalized in Alaska as of Wednesday afternoon with 38 ICU beds available, 15 of them in Anchorage.

Hospitals in Anchorage are tightening restrictions on visitors amid a rise in COVID-19 cases.

Starting Monday, Alaska Regional Hospital cut the number of visitors a patient can have. Visitors are no longer allowed for adult inpatients or in the emergency room. One visitor is allowed for surgery, the imaging department, maternity services and in the neonatal intensive care unit. Children under 18 may have one caregiver present.

The hospital says it may allow for specific exceptions, such as assistance for a patient with a disability or religious visitation.

Meanwhile, Providence Alaska Medical Center moved its visitation policy to its strictest level last week. That means no visitors are allowed for appointments, the emergency department or hospitalized patients. One visitor is allowed during maternity services, end of life care and day surgery check-in and pick-up for adults. Patients at the end of life may have one additional visitor, for a total of two.

Providence also says that adult patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 are not allowed to have visitors unless they’re receiving maternity services or end of life care. At least one parent or guardian can visit patients under 18, regardless of the patient’s COVID-19 status.

On its website, Providence notes that a patient’s care team may make exceptions if a visitor is critical to physical or emotional care during an appointment.

The Alaska Native Medical Center also moved to its most restrictive visitor policy this month. No visitors are allowed except for day surgery drop-off and pick-up, for pediatric patients not in isolation and for maternity services. End of life visitors will be considered on a case-by-case basis. The hospital says its staff will use technology to connect patients to family members whenever possible.

According to state data, 87 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized in Alaska on Tuesday, and 57 of them were in Anchorage. Seven ICU beds were available in Anchorage.

The U.S. Postal Service has begun taking orders for at-home coronavirus test kits.

The website, COVIDtests.gov, was originally slated to begin taking orders on Wednesday. White House press secretary Jen Psaki says the site is in the “beta testing” stage and “will be launched formally tomorrow morning [Wednesday].” (Click here to see how many users are on the test kit site.)

Households can order four rapid tests, which the Postal Service says will be shipped for free “in late January.”

The White House says it will prioritize shipments to Americans from ZIP codes that have experienced high rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths, with the first 20% of each day’s orders going to those areas.

President Biden last week announced that the administration plans to buy 1 billion at-home tests for Americans and also said the White House will make high-quality masks available for free, with details coming out this week. There will also be a phone number so those without access to computers or high-speed internet can place orders.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

The Biden administration announced Friday that Americans can begin ordering free at-home COVID-19 rapid tests starting Jan. 19.

Orders for up to four tests per household can be placed using the website COVIDtests.gov. The administration will also set up a phone number so those without access to computers or high-speed internet can place orders.

The White House said tests will usually ship within seven to 12 days of ordering, meaning most Americans won’t receive them until the end of January.

People ordering tests will input their name and mailing address on the website and can share an email address to get updates on their order, officials said. The website was created with help from the U.S. Digital Service, a federal program created to make federal tech better in the wake of the botched rollout of the HealthCare.gov website for Affordable Care Act health insurance in 2013.

“We’re ready for this,” an official told reporters, saying they were cognizant of the need to make sure the website works.

Details of the website come a day after President Biden announced that the administration will buy another 500 million at-home coronavirus tests for Americans, in addition to his plans detailed last month to order 500 million tests. He also said the White House will make high-quality masks available for free, with details coming out next week.

The U.S. Postal Service, meanwhile, is preparing to facilitate the mailing of the at-home test kits. Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, told NPR that up to 7,000 temporary workers will be hired, some of whom were already employed as holiday help, to package and address the test kits at 43 fulfillment centers around the United States.

“We’re very excited, and at the end of the day, we’re here to serve the people of the country and we’re dedicated to that mission,” Dimondstein said. “Postal workers are ready to rock and roll.”

The Postal Service would not comment on the specifics, but in a statement, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said:

“The United States Postal Service is proud to fulfill its mission of service to the nation by delivering Covid test kits as part of this important public health initiative of the Biden Administration. The 650,000 women and men of the United States Postal Service are ready to deliver and proud to play a critical role in supporting the health needs of the American public. We have been working closely with the Administration and are well prepared to accept and deliver test kits on the first day the program launches.”

Biden announces new medical teams to help overwhelmed hospitals

Biden on Thursday also again urged Americans to get vaccinated and get booster shots in order to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus and to take the stress off hospitals and medical staff.

“If you haven’t gotten vaccinated, do it,” Biden implored. “Personal choice impacts us all.” He called COVID-19 “one of the most formidable enemies America has ever faced. We’ve got to work together, not against each other.”

Biden also said six new federal medical teams will be dispatched to aid overwhelmed hospitals in six states.

The medical teams are being sent to the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio; Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y.; Rhode Island Hospital in Providence; the Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System; University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque; and University Hospital in Newark, N.J.

Facing criticism over its response to the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus, the White House says that since Thanksgiving, over 800 military and other federal personnel have been deployed to 24 states and that 14,000 National Guard members have been activated in 49 states to help with everything from clinical care to administering vaccines. The deployments have been paid for by the federal government with funds from the American Rescue Plan.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

With the omicron variant of the coronavirus spreading rapidly in Alaska, contact tracing is increasingly difficult. A new feature for Alaska smartphones could help.

The service COVID ENX was developed by Apple and Google to allow users to anonymously report that they’ve tested positive for COVID-19.

Kenrick Mock is a computer science professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage who’s part of the team that optimized the feature for Alaska phones.

“If you’ve got an Apple iPhone, and it’s kind of recent, then it’s already baked into the operating system,” Mock said. “All someone would have to do is go to their settings, and there’s a setting for exposure notifications, and all they would have to do is turn it on.”

From there, the feature uses Bluetooth to connect with other phones nearby that have the function activated. A random code is generated and sent automatically and anonymously to nearby phones, where it’s saved for 14 days.

“If someone tests positive for COVID, then what they can do is they can share their positive test,” Mock said. “And when they do that, it’s anonymous. It doesn’t link back to them or say it was their phone or anything like that. And then based on the exchange of those random codes, other phones that had contact with the person that shared their diagnosis will be notified that they may have been exposed to COVID-19.”

Mock said users are then directed to state resources for testing and isolating. While he said the app removes some of the contact tracing strain from health care workers, it doesn’t send the positive result to the state database.

Mock said it wouldn’t ping every nearby phone, just ones that meet a typical COVID exposure threshold — within six feet for more than 15 minutes. He said a good example is a movie theater.

“You’re sitting in a theater for maybe two hours and you don’t know who these people are that might be near you,” Mock said. “One of them might test positive and if they share their diagnosis, then you could get notified and know that you should get tested.”

For Apple users, Mock said they need to have at least the iOS 14.4 software update to have the feature work on their phone. For Android users, an app for Alaska COVID ENX is rolling out next week in the Play store.