covid-19

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.

Two years after becoming one of the most sealed-off locations in the United States, St. Paul Island is reopening to visitors. St. Paul Island Tour, a business within the Unangan-owned TDX Corp., is resuming its operations after a pause forced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Alaska Marine Highway System has dropped its mask mandate, nearly two years after imposing it. The department announced the end of its mask requirement on Tuesday, the day after a federal judge struck down a directive from the Biden administration that required masks on public transportation.

Alaska businesses hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic have until April 30 to apply for tens of millions of dollars from a second round of federal pandemic relief funding. But that’s only if they didn’t get money during the first series of grants issued through the state’s American Rescue Plan Act. Even if business owners applied and were turned down during that first round of the Alaska ARPA Business Relief Program, they can still give this second round a shot, said Shirley Marquardt, executive director for the Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference. “If you applied, but you did not get any funding, for whatever reason … you can go back and you can apply again here on round two,” Marquardt said. “And I would really strongly urge people to do that.”

Unalaska’s Iliuliuk Family and Health Services clinic has a new interim chief operator. Jennifer Heller is a certified nurse midwife. She’s been working in healthcare for more than two decades and has been employed at IFHS as a nurse midwife and quality improvement coordinator since 2019. Now, she’s the second interim CEO the island’s clinic has hired since December.

The Unalaska City School District’s COVID-19 Advisory Committee decided to stand down Wednesday. That means committee members won’t be meeting monthly to discuss the district’s COVID-19 protocols, unless there is a spike in local cases and the district sees a need in resurrecting the advisory group.

City Manager Erin Reinders announced at Tuesday’s City Council meeting that the number of reported COVID-19 infections had fallen to zero for the first time since the winter surge, when confirmed cases numbered in the hundreds. Also at the meeting, the city’s planning director, Bil Homka, presented the results from a survey that measures the quality of life in Unalaska. Unalaska City Council members also reviewed a cost benefit analysis for the Captains Bay Road improvement project, the city’s most expensive capital project.

Unalaska students and staff can start shedding their masks at school starting Monday.Unalaska City School District officials sent out a letter to families on Wednesday, saying masks will no longer be required beginning next week.

The Qawalangin Tribe has partnered with Aleutian Housing Authority, the City of Unalaska and other local donors to open Unalaska's first official food bank. While items like frozen meat and fish aren't very common at food banks, the Tribe is making an effort to have a variety of nutrient dense and traditional foods available to the community.

The nation's sole heavy icebreaker arrived in Antarctica on Monday, following a nearly three-month trip from Seattle. The deployment marks the Polar Star’s 25th journey to the earth’s southernmost continent, supporting Operation Deep Freeze – an annual mission to resupply American scientists doing research near the South Pole, according to a Coast Guard statement.