Governor announces no new mandates

ANCHORAGE — Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced no new measures to combat the rapid spread of COVID-19 in Alaska and said that he will address the end of his Emergency Declaration next week, which is set to expire Nov. 15.

There were 353 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Alaska Wednesday with 13 new hospitalizations and one new death. Dunleavy detailed a variety of resources that will arrive shortly to Alaska to aid the health care industry in battling the pandemic ahead of the expected release of a vaccine, which Dunleavy said could be released between November and April.

“What I want to say is that nothing surprises us so far, meaning even back into February and March when our numbers were incredibly low, we knew that the cases would rise,” said Dunleavy. “We also knew that it was going to be very very contagious, highly infectious. Some scientists, some researchers have said this is probably the most infectious, easily spread virus they’ve seen in decades, if not 100 years, easily spread. That too has held true.”

There have been 14,097 Alaska residents who have tested positive for COVID-19, with 7,604 cases currently active in Alaska. There were 76 new cases reported in the Mat-Su with 1,277 total resident cases, 724 of which remain active.

“This pandemic does not happen to us, this virus can only spread when we give it a chance to spread from person to person. It can’t actually replicate without human cells, and so really the work that we all do collectively to slow the spread makes a gigantic difference,” said Alaska Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink. “The areas that are in the fastest growth upward right now are the Mat-Su and the Kenai with doubling rates between seven to eight days and the Mat-Su has the highest percent positivity right now at 15.73 percent.”

Zink announced a new metric on the COVID-19 dashboard displaying the percentage of hospitalizations related to COVID-19. Statewide, 7.27 percent of hospitalizations are COVID-19 related, which is lower than the national average of 8 percent. There are currently 80 people hospitalized in Alaska awaiting tests, 63 of whom have been confirmed positive. Alaska’s average cases per day per 100,000 residents is at 35.7 ahead of the national average of 21. A total of 71 people statewide have now died due to COVID-19.

“We have crushed that curve before. We’ve been really able to help protect each other and this is the time to act now again. We have a lot of cases in the state with an acceleration and so people know what to do and the more that we minimize that spread, and I think when times are hard we acknowledge the truth and we acknowledge the reality of this virus and we work collectively together to be able to minimize the spread and support those who are most vulnerable in our community,” said Zink.

Dunleavy announced that 200 new rapid testing machines would arrive in Alaska shortly with 50 machines committed from the Federal Government. Dunleavy said that 186,000 tests will arrive shortly and three months of additional testing supplies were en route to speed turnaround times to rural areas. Dunleavy said that over 10,000 antigen tests would arrive shortly and announced a new testing facility in Nome and a commercial testing lab. Dunleavy said that the state was working to improve the supply chain and purchasing 3.5 million pairs of gloves.

“We’re going to be working at suppressing the growth of this virus. We’re adding more to our contact tracing in terms of staff. We’re expanding our contact tracing with help from the University of Alaska Anchorage as well as the National Guard so we have more bodies being put into that effort so that folks know and can have a discussion with individuals they came in contact with to help address the rise in cases,” said Dunelavy. “Nothing surprising, the numbers are growing. We all want to work together to stop that growth. We all want to work together in wearing masks. We all want to work together in limiting our exposure to large groups. We want to do as much work online as possible, on the phone as possible, and if we’ve got to go to a store, we wear a mask and wash our hands, and so if we keep working on this as individuals and looking out for ourselves and for each other, we should be able to get the cases flattening out.”

Dunleavy remains hopeful that a vaccine will be broadly available shortly, and has submitted a three-phased distribution plan to the Federal Government. Dunleavy also said that he would not be in favor of a statewide mask mandate.

“Folks again that have asked about a statewide mask mandate and the discussions are similar to what we’ve been having over the last several months, individual communities can do that. We would support that, you have the community of Anchorage for example, Juneau for example, there’s other communities. We would support that if that’s what they wish to do. I believe that that’s done at the local level and again, would support a decision by the local communities to do that,” said Dunleavy.

Commissioner of the Department of Health and Social Services Adam Crum announced a new partnership between senior and disability services and the nonprofit organization Advancing States to allow people with background as health care providers to help fill staffing gaps due to the coronavirus. Crum said that connecttocarejobs.com would allow healthcare professionals to aid senior care.

“This is connecting to make sure that healthcare professionals in Alaska can go to work, can continue that process, this level of care was provided and then these individuals in assisted living homes don’t end up unnecessarily in the hospital. So it’s making sure we’re taking care of them we’re really trying to bolster up these walls around the vulnerable populations of the state,” said Crum.

In the Mat-Su, 35,372 tests have been conducted with a seven day test positivity rate of 16.52 percent. There are four covid positive patients at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center and 5.88 percent of all hospitalized patients are due to covid. There are zero remaining beds of the 14 Intensive Care Unit beds at MSRMC and 83 available inpatient beds of 135 total. With more than half of Mat-Su Borough School District schools experiencing closures due to COVID-19, Dr. Zink said that the community around schools needs to be mindful.

“We really need to minimize those exposures outside of the schools so that we can make sure we can keep kids in school, but we continue to expand contact tracing with the schools in real time effort so that they can keep kids in school and also know where transmission is happening and keep teachers communities and students safe and healthy,” said Zink.

Lieutenant Governor Kevin Meyer said that he was hopeful that more Alaskans would vote this year than in 2016 and reported that over 80,000 absentee votes have been returned and over 100,000 have voted early.

“I’m encouraged by the number of people who have voted early or absentee, that that is going to relieve the crowds at the polling sites, so again there’s no reason in my mind that we won’t and can’t have a very successful election,” said Meyer. “We feel very confident that we can and will do elections as normal. There will be the proper [Personal Protective Equipment] there for both the workers and the voters. We highly encourage that the voters do wear a mask and of course all the workers will have a mask and a shield or both if they want.”

The early voting location at the Borough Building in Palmer was closed on Friday, November 23 and Meyer admitted that rural poll workers have been tough to find. Absentee ballots will not begin to be counted until November 10, Meyer reiterated.

“Recruitment for election workers has been great. I couldn’t be more proud of Alaskans for coming out and making sure that this very important election occurs,” said Meyer.

Dunleavy said that he would have more information on his expiring Disaster Declaration next week.

“It’s not doom and gloom,” said Dunleavy. “For those that believe there is no virus, there is a virus. It’s highly contagious, it does exist and we want to make sure that our cases don’t keep climbing because eventually the math will work against us.”

There have been 1,277 resident cases in the Mat-Su with 23 total nonresident cases.

Wasilla has had 810 total cases with 488 remaining active. Palmer has had 367 total cases with 190 remaining active. Willow has had 30 cases with 12 remaining active. Big Lake has had 27 cases with 12 remaining active. Houston has had 17 cases with 12 remaining active. Sutton has had seven cases with one active and Meadow Lakes has had three cases with two active.