UPDATE Thursday evening:
Thursday’s active cases climbed to 52, according to the Emergency Operations Center. The weekly positivity rate is 8.1 percent.
1,205 people in Petersburg have been vaccinated. Close to 18 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated (two doses plus two weeks to build immunity). Almost 38 percent of the population has had it’s first dose of the vaccination.
There were 295 pending tests as of Thursday evening.
Previous Report (Thursday afternoon):
Petersburg’s active COVID cases climbed to 46 today. The weekly positivity rate dropped a bit from just over 9 percent to 7.7 percent.
There were 271 tests pending as of this afternoon.
A contact tracing team from the State of Alaska has been helping identify possible spread in the community. They are asking residents to answer the phone when they call and to cooperate with testing.
Petersburg Medical Center leadership said on Tuesday that staff had been working around the clock. The medical center has treated some patients with monoclonal antibody treatments and have more doses if needed. They have ventilators on site but would likely medevac patients out for that treatment, they said. They have medevaced one patient so far in the outbreak.
Free asymptomatic testing is being offered to anyone at the airport testing tent Monday through Friday from 7:30 to 10 a.m.
The Petersburg Emergency Operations Center has recommended that all non-essential businesses close and are asking all essential businesses to use curb-side service and stagger staffing. Travel is not recommended unless it’s critical. The EOC is asking residents to adhere to the local masking mandate.
There have been 103 COVID cases in Petersburg since the pandemic began. 89 of them have been residents and 14 non-residents.
