Four new COVID cases in Nome

By Julia Lerner
Since last Thursday, Norton Sound Health Corporation has identified four new positive COVID-19 cases in Nome, bringing the total number of active cases in the region to six.
On Saturday, May 1, a Nome resident tested positive for COVID-19 after traveling back to Nome. The individual is safely isolating and close contacts have been notified, according to a press release from the NSHC. Vaccinated people don’t have to quarantine or get tested when arriving in Nome. For unvaccinated individuals, travel protocol in Nome mandates still a 14-day quarantine if persons don’t want to get tested upon arrival, or a seven-day quarantine after arrival with two COVID tests on the day of arrival and seven days later.
Two other Nome residents tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, May 2, and are close contacts of one another. NSHC has not yet determined if these cases were travel-related or community spread.  A fourth individual tested positive for COVID-19 in a community-spread case on Monday, May 3.  
One of the individuals diagnosed on Sunday may have exposed students and staff at the Nome-Beltz Middle School between April 26-30 according to an announcement from the superintendent.
Nome Public Schools Superintendent Jamie Burgess advised students and staff members in grades 6, 7, and 8 who are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms to get tested as soon as possible. Burgess also scheduled additional testing at the middle school on Tuesday, May 4 and Friday, May 7.
While staff members at the school are eligible for vaccination, middle school-age students are not able to be vaccinated against the coronavirus until they are at least 16-years-old.
In March, Pfizer announced children ages 12-15 who received the vaccines in trials demonstrated “100% efficacy and robust antibody responses, exceeding those reported in trial of vaccinated 16-25 year old participants in an earlier analysis, and was well tolerated.” The organization is waiting for emergency approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin administering to younger individuals.
At the time of publication, the FDA has not approved use of the vaccine in children, but NSHC Medical Director Dr. Mark Peterson hopes it will be cleared “any day now,” he said during a weekly COVID-19 conference call. “It could be in an hour, it could be tomorrow, and it could be next Monday. We’re hoping that it’s soon.”
If approved, Dr. Peterson said, NSHC intends to use “the same procedure” they use for flu shots each year. “We will bring vaccination teams to each village and offer Pfizer vaccinations at the school. We will require parental/guardian consent for anyone to receive the vaccine.”
Adult vaccination rates in the region are rising slowly, with about 75 percent of eligible adults vaccinated. Last week, NHSC administered 56 vaccinations across Nome.
“We’d like to see more than 56 shots given in a week,” Dr. Peterson said. “But we’ll take it! It’s certainly not zero. We’d like to see a lot more, but we’re getting there.”
“Getting vaccinated is the way to get over this pandemic,” Dr. Peterson said later, stressing the importance of vaccines and reaching herd immunity as COVID-19 cases rise across Alaska.
According to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, anywhere between 50 and 90 percent of a population needs immunity before infection rates begin to decline and the population is safer from widespread illness. But, the university said, “this percentage isn’t a ‘magic threshold.’” Currently, about 58 percent of Bering Strait region residents are vaccinated, and NSHC hopes to vaccinate between 12 and 22 percent more.
Vaccines are no longer available after-hours at City Hall, though will continue to be available at the Nome Airport for travelers, the Nome Post Office and the hospital pharmacy. At the post office, vaccines are available Monday through Friday, from 12 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. At the pharmacy, walk-ins are welcome from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday to Friday and from 10 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. on Saturdays.
Throughout Alaska, COVID-19 cases continue to rise despite vaccination and prevention efforts.
“There’s a little bit of a surge in the interior,” Dr. Peterson said during the weekly NSHC COVID-19 conference call. In cities like Fairbanks, hospital capacity is being stretched by a recent surge of younger, unvaccinated patients.
Other areas, including Anchorage and North Pole also saw a rise in COVID-19 cases. In the past seven days, Johns Hopkins reported 917 new positive COVID-19 diagnoses, and one death in Alaska.
On Friday, April 30, Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed a bill that extended the state’s COVID-19 Disaster Declaration that included a new section which gave powers to the Commissioner of Health
 and Social Services to declare a public health emergency. Dunleavy ended the Disaster Declaration that had been in effect since March 2020, but DHSS Commissioner Adam Crum declared a more limited public health emergency.  “Alaska is in the recovery phase where an emergency declaration is no longer necessary,” Dunleavy said in a press release. “Our systems are fully functioning with vaccine distribution, adequate testing, and health care capacity.”
One of the things the Disaster Declaration (HB76) did was establish a new section of law.  Now the Commissioner of HSS can declare a public health emergency. Explains Paul Labolle, Chief of Staff for Rep. Neal Foster: “A Disaster Declaration is very board and gives the administration sweeping powers.  The Public Health Emergency is much more tailored to instances like an epidemic.  Section 4 of the bill delineates the powers.  According to the Administration, the Public Health Emergency will allow us to qualify for federal relief funds.  This was basically designed in the Senate in cooperation with the Governor to allow him to end the disaster but still qualify for federal funds.” Those funds include food assistance.
The next step, Dunleavy said, is focusing on Alaska’s economy and the summer tourist season.
Other state legislators are concerned with Dunleavy’s decision, worrying about the swell of unvaccinated tourists and the state’s inability to manage COVID-related health initiatives without the disaster declaration in place.
“With thousands of potentially unvaccinated individuals traveling to Alaska and many unknowns about the impacts of COVID-19 variants, I pray this decision will not have disastrous consequences,” said Alaska House Representative Bryce Edgmon (I-Dillingham) in a press release. “I applaud the governor’s leadership over the last year, including his focus on a safe and successful fishing season, but am dumbfounded by a unilateral move to eliminate tools we may need during a busy tourism and fishing season that will attract thousands of visitors.”
As of Tuesday, Alaska has a total of 68,426 cases and 348 deaths.
In the Nome, Bering Strait and Norton Sound region, there were 347 cases, six hospitalizations, and no deaths recorded.

 

The Nome Nugget

PO Box 610
Nome, Alaska 99762
USA

Phone: (907) 443-5235
Fax: (907) 443-5112

www.nomenugget.net

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