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A group of COVID-positive fishermen visited an Unalaska bar late Saturday, and now anyone who is unvaccinated and was there is being asked to quarantine; as Anchorage COVID-19 vaccinations are starting to plateau while cases rise, the number of vaccine doses administered each day across the state is also slowing; and in February, a group of Unalaskans began a months-long journey to get their firefighter certification.

At the end of last year, the council that regulates Alaska's lucrative federal fisheries eliminated the seat of one of its key Alaska Native panel members; Alaska health officials have announced the state's first case of a mutant strain of COVID-19 first detected in South Africa; and the COVID-19 pandemic has driven a boom in the world of Indigenous earring makers in Alaska.

Several seismic stations at Shishaldin Volcano are now operating after being offline for several months this winter; last week, the Biden Administration announced the members of the new White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council; and as the Alaska Legislature moves deeper into its session, the state budget is taking shape. 

While federal public health authorities have taken a step towards allowing cruises to resume in U.S. waters, there's still no clear timeline for cruises to resume in Alaska; amid pandemic anxiety, CARES Act funds were a godsend for remote Alaska communities, but for Tribal administrators, they were also a headache; and Unalaskans Against Sexual Assault and Family Violence is in the midst of hosting its annual Soup Off event. 

St. Paul has implemented a two-week "hunker down" order after officials confirmed the island's first case of COVID-19 Wednesday — more than a year after the pandemic arrived in the state; a man linked to a string of drug overdoses in Unalaska in 2019 has died in prison; and later this year, Alaskans will need to dial the area code when making phone calls within the state.