A total of 17 new positive cases of COVID-19 tests were announced by Dr. Anne Zink, Alaska’s Chief Medical Officer, during a Wednesday evening town hall hosted by Governor Mike Dunleavy. Among those 17 new cases includes a Homer resident. The total of positive cases in Alaska has now reached 59.
Dr. Zink: “As of today, we have 59 total cases in the state of Alaska. We have 17 new cases today: 11 of those are from Anchorage, one is from Homer, one from Fairbanks, three of Ketchikan, one from North Pole. Eight of them are male, nine are female. Three are between the ages of 19 – 29, nine are between the ages of 30 – 59, five are above the age of 60. We have one that is a travel-associated case, three that are considered close-contact, and 13 that are still under investigation.”
Regarding the Homer resident, the City of Homer issued a release stating that the patient had been traveling out of state in the lower-48, self-reported when they arrived by airplane in Anchorage, and was tested in Anchorage. That patient will continue to remain in Anchorage and isolated until cleared by public health officials.
Governor Dunleavy hosted a town hall alongside Dr. Anne Zink, Dr. Jay Butler from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as other members of Alaska’s COVID-19 response team via teleconference. They took questions from the press about the pandemic, and announced the current state of COVID-19 cases in the state.
Calling in from Atlanta, Dr. Butler discussed the age of individuals who are at a higher risk of becoming severely ill, but did not ignore the fact that there is not just one group of people being impacted: “The most important driver of mortality appears to be advanced age. People over the age of 80 have the highest mortality rate. However, the risk of severe disease is also elevated with people with chronic heart, lung, or kidney disease, diabetes, or certain immunocompromised conditions.”
In addition, Dr. Butler discussed experiments that the CDC has conducted to help get to the bottom of how to put individuals at a lower risk of transmission, and also the conditions under which people are under a higher risk. He also warned against putting too much stock in talk of medications currently being tested, as nothing has been recommended as a positive combatant yet, nor have any vaccines been developed. His final conclusion was to continue the guidelines that have been pushed since the beginning of the crisis, and that is social distancing and handwashing.
Regarding resources, Governor Dunleavy says that his team is not waiting on the Federal government to solve everything; rather, they are forming relationships with local businesses to transform their means of manufacturing into producing much-needed resources in the state of Alaska, such as hand sanitizer and testing swabs.
Dr. Zink also discussed the plans to not overwhelm the healthcare system, by allowing some patients to go home if their symptoms are not severe and then monitoring them via text message or telephone, or perhaps using dormant surgical units to house these patients. With each area of the state being so vastly different, she said they are working with local officials to come to solutions to keep from causing an overload of resources.
This is a developing story. Stay with KSRM for continued updates.