Governor Mike Dunleavy announced ten new positive cases of COVID-19 throughout the State of Alaska on Wednesday during his nightly press briefing. This brings the total in the state to 143 positive cases.
Dr. Anne Zink, Alaska’s Chief Medical Officer offered details about the patients: “We do have ten new cases as of today. We have two from the Anchorage area, three from Fairbanks, one from Juneau, one from Ketchikan, two from North Pole, and one from Wasilla. Three are male, seven are female. One is between the ages of 19 – 29. Eight are between the ages of 30 – 59. One is over the age of 60. There are two that are considered close-contacts. None of them are travel-associated, at this time. Eight remain under investigation.”
With regards to testing, Dr. Zink noted that Alaska has gone through over 5,000 tests with results that indicate the testing process is being done well in the state: “It’s a series of labs coming in both from the private lab as well as the state lab. We’ve had a total of 5,022 people tested in the state with a total of 143 positives. A couple of things to note about that: the World Health Organization came out recently and said if your tests are coming back and you’re having greater than 10% of tests positive, you’re not testing enough people. Right now, we’re at 2.8% of our tests that are coming back positive. That was reassuring to hear from the WHO. We continue to push out as much testing as we can to make sure that we’re testing people who have symptoms consistent with COVID-19, and try to keep ahead of that curve.”
Commissioner Adam Crum of the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services announced that two earlier mandates, Health Mandate 2 and Health Mandate 3, have been extended until rescinded. These mandates call for the indefinite closure of libraries, as well as barring public dine-in food service and entertainment facilities. They were previously set to expire on April 1, but will now continue until further notice. The Governor’s COVID-19 Health Mandates can be found here.
Commissioner Michael Johnson of the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development offered updates about how the school system supports everyone involved in the education process. He keyed in on three areas of support: for educators, for students, and for families. He discussed the early success of model distance learning programs throughout the state, including districts working with Apple to hopefully provide pre-loaded iPads for students with technological needs. Also, he focused on school counselors offering mental health support for students during this stressful time, when they need it most.
He also noted, “The key is that everybody is committed to learning opportunities for students.”
Stay tuned to KSRM for continued coverage of the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as coverage of Governor Dunleavy’s briefings to the public.