AKUTAN

One of the most remote regions in Alaska is the Aleutian Islands. And for the most part, communities along the island chain have done well throughout the pandemic, recording relatively few cases outside of seafood processing plants.

But as the COVID-19 vaccine becomes more widely available across the state and country, health care providers are grappling with the logistical challenges of distributing vaccines to the region's windswept communities. 

Trident Seafoods' huge processing plant on the remote Aleutian island of Akutan reopened Friday after a nearly month-long COVID-19 closure. 

An outbreak at the plant forced the fishing giant to close the facility in late January just as the lucrative winter season was set to kick off. Forty-five percent of Trident's 700-person workforce ultimately tested positive for the virus, company officials said Monday.  

A 233-foot floating processor owned by Trident Seafoods caught fire shortly before midnight Wednesday. The processor, Aleutian Falcon, was docked at the Port of Tacoma, Washington. 

Trident has said the vessel is a total loss, according to multiple news outlets. 

Unalaska's largest fish processing plant reopened Monday after a COVID-19 outbreak forced it to shut down for almost a month. 

UniSea closed its doors Jan. 5 after a handful of workers tested positive for the virus, following a New Year's gathering in company housing. 

COVID-19 has hit another processing plant operated by fishing giant Trident Seafoods — this time aboard one of the corporation's massive factory trawlers, the Island Enterprise.

Trident announced Thursday five workers on the football field-length ship tested positive for the coronavirus after it arrived in the Aleutian port of Dutch Harbor for the winter fishing season.