covid-19

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.

Nearly nine months after Adak reported its first case of COVID-19, the nation’s westernmost city is seeing a spike in infections.

The Unalaska City Council voted Tuesday to keep the island’s current mask mandate in place.Over the past month, the city has experienced its largest surge of community-acquired COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, and city councilors remain cautious as hospitals in Anchorage near capacity.

This summer about 50 Unalaska youth returned to Humpy Cove for the island’s annual Qawalangin Tribe culture camp.The coronavirus pandemic canceled last year’s event and jeopardized camp this summer. But camp mentors and coordinators, from Nikolski to Soldotna, arrived just in time to teach local kids about making bentwood hats, harvesting fish and sea mammals and preserving Unangax̂ values.

This infographic provides guidance from the State of Alaska for the general population. If you live or work in a high-risk setting such as a correctional institution, health care facility, an assisted living facility, or a fish-processing plant, talk to someone at your facility for guidance.

The Unalaska preschool’s morning session will be closed until Sept. 13, according to school administrators.The class was cancelled Wednesday after the district was notified a child tested positive for COVID-19, School Superintendent Dr. Robbie Swint, Jr. said.

“People are sick. That's very concerning to me,” said Iliuliuk Family and Health Services clinic CEO Melanee Tiura. “We've had other upticks in the past where our patients have done really well — our community has done really well — but at this point, we are definitely seeing more symptoms and more illness than we had in the past.”

The Unalaska City Council voted unanimously in favor of a citywide mask mandate at its meeting Tuesday, in an attempt to curb the recent spread of…