More positive COVID-19 cases in Alaska; Dine-in service for restaurants, bars closed statewide

ANCHORAGE — State officials announced two new health mandates and two new health alerts concerning the coronavirus threat and response in Alaska. On Wednesday, another three positive test results were announced for the second day in a row. A week after the first case was detected in Alaska, the total number of cases is now at nine.

Of the nine residents who tested positive for COVID 19 in Alaska, all nine cases are being treated as travel related cases and none are being classified as community to community transmitted cases. After the initial case in Anchorage last Thursday, two men reported positive tests in Fairbanks on Monday night and three more positive tests were discovered on Tuesday. Alaska’s Chief Medical Officer Anne Zink reported all three new cases discovered on Tuesday and Wednesday to be travel related cases.

“Everyone so far who has tested positive is still doing well,” Zink said.

Tuesday saw new cases in Ketchikan, Anchorage and Fairbanks and Wednesday saw the first case in Seward and another two in Anchorage. A total of 400 Alaska residents have been tested for COVID 19 thus far.

“We do have additional new cases here in the state of Alaska. We’ve been talking about this for some time, we’ve been preparing for this and it is starting to escalate,” said Zink. “The more that we can distance ourselves is the way that we protect ourselves at this time. It’s important to remember that our healthcare capacity is limited in the state of Alaska and we need to support our healthcare capacity.”

The first health mandate issued was a previous health alert that had been upgraded. Zink said that anyone returning to Alaska after traveling to a level three area is required to self quarantine for 14 days.

“If you cannot be safely distant from others then you should not be traveling out in the community,” said Zink.

The second health mandate announces the closure on March 18 at 5 p.m. for dine-in services at bars, breweries, restaurants, food and beverage trucks and kiosks and any other establishments serving food and beverages. No on-site consumption will be permitted with exceptions for grocery stores and cafeterias within a business.

“These measures are important because they’re helping to protect all Alaskans. We appreciate the public and businesses community’s understanding of these mandates in an effort to mitigate the impact of this virus. We’ve seen just in a few days that we’ve had no cases to one cases to now more cases, and this is what we’re going to continue to see with this if we do not all work together to stand apart to be able to socially distance, but to also take care of each other,” said Zink. “I know that we’re stronger together. I know that Alaska has the chance to be ahead of this curve because we do have a lot of amazing community. We have the ability to social distance in a way that many other states don’t.”

Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Commissioner Adam Crum also announced that congregate meals at senior centers would be postponed and child care centers must follow Center for Disease Control guidelines if they were to remain open.

“We knew we were going to get more cases. We are prepared for these cases. We have to continually have our protocols evolve and our mandates and our advisories to deal with these cases,” said Dunleavy.

Dunleavy was happy to finally announce the beginning of his plan to stabilize the economy during the viral uncertainty. Dunleavy announced a working group spearheaded by former Governor Sean Parnell and former U.S. Senator Mark Becgich that will include former elected officials and members of the business community to discuss economic stabilization. Dunleavy said that he was attending the teleconference fresh off robust discussions with legislative leadership about an approach for economic stabilization.

“We stand with the governor. We support what he is doing and we will do all we can to provide that economic and moral support which is also needed for the people of Alaska. We are all in this together and together we will come out ahead on this. We will stand together and take care of each other,” said Senate President Cathy Giessel.

During the press conference, Zink responded to numerous questions about testing and the state’s capacity to provide testing. Zink said that 1,650 test kits exist in Alaska today and that more work is being done to provide testing where necessary. Following the announcement of two additional cases Monday and three additional cases Tuesday and bringing the total number of cases of COVID 19 in Alaska to six, Zink discussed the followup investigation on who individuals who tested positive may have come in contact with.

“The case investigations are fairly extensive, so the case investigations have been ongoing for the two in Fairbanks that we announced yesterday. There had been some travel within the state within the city of Fairbanks after they had returned and while they were having some mild symptoms prior to being diagnosed, and that is part of the reason we are issuing this mandate, to really kind of slow that social spread and try to slow things down as much as possible. We do believe that we have made contact with nearly every individual that we need to make contact with,” said Zink.