Sitka grapples with spread of COVID-19 as Alaska sees continued rise in cases - Anchorage Daily News

Sitka’s growing COVID-19 outbreak continued this week, with another 62 resident cases reported Tuesday and Wednesday as case counts statewide climbed by 472 total over the same two-day period.

Officials from public health, state epidemiology and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “all tried to stop the travelers from boarding the aircraft,” according to the message, published in the Sentinel.

Alaska Airlines was contacted by the CDC after the group was en route to Seattle, an airline spokesman said Wednesday.

“I’m asking Sitkans to do what’s right,” Warren said Wednesday afternoon.

Sitka as of Wednesday had more than 200 active cases and an average 14-day rolling case rate over 15, according to the municipal dashboard.

The rising case counts come as the first major cruise ship to dock in Alaska waters since 2019 arrived in Sitka on Wednesday.

The newly reported Sitka cases are among 435 infections among Alaskans reported over the last two days in the state, with one new COVID-19-related death, according to Wednesday data posted by the state Department of Health and Social Services.

The person who died was a woman in her 70s from the Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, the state health department said.

Health officials continue to encourage Alaskans to get vaccinated against the virus, noting that the vaccines have been shown to be highly effective at preventing severe illness from the virus, including the more contagious variants.

About a third of the new cases in Sitka now are among vaccinated people, local emergency officials say.

[A small portion of Alaska COVID-19 infections are in fully vaccinated people.

The recent rise in cases can likely be attributed in part to the highly contagious delta variant first identified in India in December and in Alaska in May, health officials have said.

Of the 435 resident cases reported Tuesday and Wednesday, there were 153 in Anchorage; 62 in Sitka; 27 in Juneau; 22 in Homer; 21 in Palmer; 19 in Cordova; 15 in Wasilla; 14 each in Fairbanks and Soldotna; 11 in Kodiak; 10 in Seward; six each in Bethel and Kenai; five each in Chugiak, Eagle River and Ketchikan; four in Sterling; three each in Hooper Bay and Unalaska; two each in Anchor Point and Utqiagvik; and one each in Douglas, Girdwood, North Pole, Sutton-Alpine and Valdez

There were 37 nonresident cases: seven in Cordova; seven in Sitka; six in Wasilla; four in Anchorage; four in the Kenai Peninsula Borough; two in Homer; one in the Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area; and six in unidentified regions of the state