Preparing for the next step; State continues testing, strategic plan to reopen Alaska

ANCHORAGE — Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced only two new cases of COVID-19 positive Alaskans on Monday, bringing the state’s cumulative total up to 381 with 328 people who have recovered from symptoms.

The two new cases were in Anchorage and Fairbanks and the Mat-Su remains at 21 cases. Along with further detail on testing, Department of Health and Social Services Commissioner Adam Crum and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink welcomed Senior Medical Officer with the United States Department of Homeland Security Dr. Alexander Eastman to the Monday press conference.

“I’ve had the pleasure of running a very small team of talented operators who have come together to try to go to places where the response has been active to try to help those jurisdictions in any way we can. The orders are simple, to deliver the absolute best of what the federal government has, the full array of resources to provide the necessary technical assistance on the ground in those locations and then again to deliver real world ground truth back to the folks in Washington who need to have that information to make high quality decisions,” said Eastman.

With 328 people recovered of the 381 Alaskans who have tested positive for coronavirus, Alaska’s positive rate continues to drop to 1.13 percent. Of the 21 cases in the Mat-Su, nine are from Palmer and 12 are from Wasilla, each city with five community transmitted cases. A total of 3,142 Mat-Su residents have been tested for COVID-19, accounting for 2.95 percent of the population of the Mat-Su Borough.

“We’re working quickly right now to get us through and get us prepared for the next step in opening up this economy even more. Again, we’re not going about this in a reckless manner, we’re going about this using science and data to drive our decisions,” said Dunleavy. “Because of your actions our numbers are still low so we’re going to keep methodically moving through the various gates to get things back to as close as normal as possible.”

Dunleavy said that discussions about bringing Eastman, who is a trauma surgeon by trade, to Alaska began over a week ago and precautions have been taken to ensure that he will not asymptomatically carry COVID-19 to Alaskan communities. Eastman was tested as he landed in Alaska and will travel around the state for his first experience in the Last Frontier. Eastman said that his orders come from the Unified Command in Washington., D.C., and as a trauma surgeon he learned not to make decisions from thousands of miles away.

“I have found in my travels around the United States, particularly over the last eight weeks that the only way we get through this is together and so it is absolutely my pleasure to be here on behalf of our senior leaders to stand shoulder to shoulder with not only Alaskan leaders but Alaskans in general, stand shoulder to shoulder with you to make sure that we all make it through this together,” said Eastman.

As the summer fishing season rapidly approaches and salmon from the Copper River have already begun their shipping journey to Seattle, Alaska has four newly reported cases of COVID-19 since Friday and tested 28,680 people. Zink said that the state is distributing a total of eight Cepheid automated molecular test machines, one of which is headed to Cordova. Zink also said that additional Abbott ID Now tests are also being shipped to rural locations and that she expected to move the machines around to different communities as the need for testing shifts.

“It’s important that we use the right machine for the right test and so we’re trying to do as many tests as we possibly can prior to people coming into Alaska to make sure we catch cases that are positive prior to people coming in,” said Zink.

Crum noted that he had requested the use of antibody and serology tests in Alaska early on during the pandemic, but Alaska did not meet the federal guidelines. With a rewrite of FDA guidelines for testing last week, Zink said that some antibody testing has been used for health care workers and in case investigations as well as in broader strokes for higher risk patients. Zink also said that antigen tests will soon be arriving to help further understand the disease.

“It’s really important that we use the right test for the right reason,” said Zink. “We’re all in this together and I think the more ways that we can find meaningful ways to decrease the spread of this disease, the better off we are realizing that we’re all going to have different limitations but we’re all in this together.”

Crum also released Attachment U late on Friday to detail the framework and capacity caps for safe operation of sports for all fans, athletes and officials involved. Dunleavy said that discussions had already taken place about the beginning of Phase 3 for his plan to reopen Alaska’s economy safely and will continue this week.

Dunleavy said he expects more information on the remaining mandatory 14-day quarantine for incoming travelers to Alaska on Friday. Dunleavy also answered questions about mask enforcement by reassuring Alaskans that he does wear a mask shopping amongst other people, but does not when four wheeling outdoors.

“We feel our numbers are very good. We’re not overconfident, we’re going to watch the metrics but every single day we are working towards getting us back to as close to normal as possible,” said Dunleavy.