Schools statewide now closed to students for the remainder of the school year

Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced that all schools statewide will be closed to students for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year due to the COVID-19 pandemic during a press conference Thursday evening in Anchorage.

State officials originally issued a mandate on March 11 that closed schools to students until May 1.

“We’re going to keep that suspension in place to the end of the school year,” Dunleavy said.

Dunleavy said state officials did not want to cause further disruption by waiting two or three more weeks to extend the mandate.

“The reason for this is we don’t know what this virus is going to do,” Dunleavy said.

School districts statewide have transitioned to remote education.

“Despite the need to extend school building closures, student learning will continue, per each school district’s individual plan, to provide distance-delivered educational services to students,” state officials said in the mandate issued Thursday.

Department of Health and Social Services Commissioner Adam Crum also announced the extension of mandates regarding social distancing, intrastate travel and elective oral health procedures. The mandates involving social distancing and travel within the state had been in order until April 11. State officials extended that to April 21 on Thursday, and Crum said the mandates would be reevaluated. The social distancing mandate calls for Alaskans to remain six feet apart, and for residents to remain home unless essential business is necessary.

The order against elective oral health procedures will continue until further notice, Crum said.

The state mandates were put in place to slow the transmission rate of COVID-19 in Alaska. There are 235 total coronavirus cases in Alaska, with nine reported Thursday. One of the new cases is in Wasilla, which lifts the Mat-Su Borough’s total to six. There are four positive tests in Palmer and two in Wasilla. There are five additional cases in Anchorage, two in Fairbanks and one in Kenai. There were 7,223 total tests, with a total of 3.2 percent of the tests coming back positive.

This is a developing story. Continue to see frontiersman.com for more.

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