coronavirus

One of the most sealed off communities in the country is under a hunker down order following a surge of COVID-19. Roughly half of all coronavirus cases recorded on St. Paul Island since the start of the pandemic have happened in the last two weeks.

The City of St. Paul says 12 people tested positive for COVID-19 so far this week – its largest spike since the start of the pandemic.

Unalaska has received its first shipment of at-home COVID-19 tests, according to local health officials. A shipment of 200 tests from the state of Alaska arrived this week and is now available to the community, said Megan Sarnecki, medical director at the Iliuliuk Family and Health Services clinic. The clinic was approved for 1,000 at-home tests – or 500 boxes of two tests each – from the state.

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.

While they came close to qualifying, the Unalaska girls volleyball team won’t be heading to the state tournament this year. They finished up their season at Lumen Christi High School in Anchorage last weekend, after coming in third place against five other teams at regionals.

The City of St. Paul says two essential workers tested positive for COVID-19 Monday, after flying into the community. The tests were performed at the local health center as part of the city’s travel testing requirements, according to a city statement.

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.

Unalaska’s local risk factor has increased to “substantial” due to a rise in local COVID-19 cases.Since Friday, the city has reported 12 new cases of the virus. This brings the island’s total to 27 active community cases, up from 18 last week. There are also 20 industry cases currently in quarantine, according to city officials.

In a somewhat contentious City Council meeting Tuesday, councilors voted to keep Unalaska’s current mask mandate in place for the next two weeks.The island currently has 40 positive COVID-19 cases — 15 of them community members, according to city officials.While the local coronavirus risk level remains in the “moderate” category, council members also took other things into account, like the shortage of hospital beds in Anchorage, and the increased number of people being medevaced off the island.“For the first year of the pandemic, I think we had two medevacs for the entire year. What we’ve seen with [the Delta variant] — we’ve had three medevacs in the last six weeks,” said Melanee Tiura, the clinic director at Iliuliuk Family and Health Services.