Alaska’s senior U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski announced on social media that she has contracted COVID-19. She made that announcement after saying that she began experiencing flu-like symptoms. In so doing, Murkowski announced that she will be following guidance and advice of doctors and quarantining at her Alaska home while continuing to work remotely.
After experiencing flu like symptoms I recently tested positive for COVID-19. I will be following guidance and advice from doctors and will be quarantining at home in Alaska while continuing my work remotely.
— Sen. Lisa Murkowski (@lisamurkowski) July 25, 2022
This comes as President Biden is recovering from coronavirus and her contemporary, West Virginia Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, also announced Monday that he tested positive. All three are vaccinated.
The U.S. Senate has just two weeks left before it is scheduled August recess begins.
The surge in coronavirus cases the United States is currently experiencing is due mostly to a new variant, BA.5, considered the predominant strain. Medical professionals indicate that the variant can be spread easily as well as being able to sidestep the protections that some vaccines provide.
Locally, across the state of Alaska, COVID-19 cases are slowly starting to increase, but not to levels seen in February. The state Department of Health said that COVID transmission is occurring widely throughout much of Alaska with hospitalizations remaining below the peak of the Omicron wave. The Omicron variant accounts for effectively all SARS-CoV-2 circulating in the state, but the BA.5 lineage of the Omicron variant is increasing in frequency and now likely accounts for the majority of the cases, according to the DOH.
The recent batch of coronavirus cases (that are reported only on Wednesdays) shows about a 16% increase compared to the previous week, but the DOH says that there’s not a clear COVID-19 case trajectory in the five largest boroughs, of which the Kenai Peninsula Borough is one of them, as the intensity of transmission varies between communities outside of the largest boroughs.
The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 has increased over the past few weeks. Most parts of the state are at the ‘high’ COVID Community Level as defined by the CDC.