Health

A local state of emergency that allowed the City of Unalaska to enact protective measures against COVID-19 will expire Friday. City Council took no action at a meeting Tuesday night to extend the declaration, which has been in place since the pandemic began in March 2020. When the declaration expires, the city will no longer be able to issue protective measures — like mask mandates — unless a new emergency is declared.

Unalaska’s Dr. Murray Buttner has been nationally recognized for his work bringing emergency training to rural Alaska communities.Buttner, a family medicine doctor and co-medical director of the island’s Iliuliuk Family and Health Services clinic, was named a 2021 Community Star by the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health. The award went to one health care provider in each U.S. state.

Iliuliuk Family and Health Services’ clinic director is stepping down after more than two years at the helm of the Unalaska clinic.Melanee Tiura will be taking a job as an administrator with Providence Medical Center in Valdez. Her last day at IFHS is Dec. 10.

KUCB's Vic Fisher sat down with Dr. Murray Buttner from the Iliuliuk Family and Health Services clinic to discuss rural Alaska health care and what an extreme outlier Unalaska is.

KUCB's Vic Fisher sat down with Dr. Murray Buttner from the Iliuliuk Family and Health Services clinic to discuss rural Alaska health care and what an extreme outlier Unalaska is.

U.S. health officials have given final approval for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for kids ages 5 through 11, but Unalaska children will have to wait for their shots — at least for a few more days.The Iliuliuk Family and Health Services clinic pre-ordered the vaccine weeks ago in preparation for its approval, and the doses are scheduled to arrive Friday, according to Medical Director Dr. Megan Sarnecki. The Oonalaska Wellness Center received its doses Thursday.

Unalaska’s mask mandate expired at noon on Wednesday, as local COVID-19 cases continue to decline.City council members voted unanimously at their Tuesday meeting to “encourage” face coverings, as opposed to requiring them. The city had enforced a mask requirement since Aug. 25, when the community experienced a surge of confirmed COVID-19 cases. At its peak, the city reported 30 cases of the virus.

St. Paul city officials reported the island’s first resident cases of COVID-19 Tuesday.The city said in a statement that two community members tested positive. One was traveling, and the other is a member of their household.

The Unalaska City Council voted Tuesday to keep a community-wide mask mandate in place, as the state continues to lead the country in average new daily COVID-19 cases per capita.

Ninety-one percent of eligible St. Paul residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to city officials.That — along with strict protective measures — has helped keep the coronavirus largely out of the small Pribilof island community. St. Paul has recorded just two COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, said City Manager Phil Zavadil. The first was in April and the second in August.