Region sees 32 active COVID cases

By Julia Lerner
As COVID-19 diagnoses and hospitalizations continue to rise across the country, cases of the virus in Nome, Norton Sound, and the Bering Strait region are also on a slight upward trajectory. In the last week, Norton Sound Health Corporation has identified 16 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of cases in the region to 32.
Statewide, the largest hospital in Alaska, Providence Medical Center, on Tuesday announced that it has reached its breaking point. In a letter, the Medical Executive Committee states, “While we are doing our utmost, we are no longer able to provide the standard of care to each and every patient who needs our help. The acuity and number of patients now exceeds our resources and our ability to staff beds with skilled caregivers, like nurses and respiratory therapists. People from all around Alaska depend on Providence to provide medical care for people statewide.
Unfortunately, we are unable to continue to meet this need; we no longer have the staff, the space, or the beds. Due to this scarcity, we are unable to provide lifesaving care to everyone who needs it. Our emergency room is overflowing; patients wait in their cars for hours to see a physician for emergency care.”
In the region, 11 individuals tested positive on Wednesday, September 8. Five individuals are in Unalakleet, two in Koyuk, two in Shaktoolik, one in Nome and one in St. Michael.
On Thursday, seven patients tested positive, including two in Koyuk, two in Shaktoolik, one in Brevig Mission, one in Savoonga and one in Unalakleet.
Over the weekend, three additional residents of Shaktoolik tested positive for COVID-19. All patients are isolating, and village leadership has been notified.
A Teller resident tested positive on Monday in a travel-related case.
Of the 32 current active cases in the region, 12 are in Unalakleet, eight are in Shaktoolik, five are in Koyuk, three are in Nome, two are in Savoonga, one is in Brevig Mission and one is in Teller.
“We do have a wide variety of communities that are affected by COVID at different levels,” explained NSHC Dr. Tim Lemaire. “We continue to do a lot of testing and support folks who are in quarantine and isolation.”
Lemaire works in NSHC’s COVID incident command and led the weekly COVID-19 conference call last week.
As the Delta variant of COVID-19 moves through the villages, Bering Strait School District Superintendent Dr. Bobby Bolen is keeping a close eye on cases and which school districts are approaching “red” status.
When schools go “red,” meaning there’s a high risk of COVID-19 spread present at the schools, distance delivery options will be available.
“We’ll be providing learning packets and meals, and there will be no outside use of the school,” Bolen told the Nugget. “No activities, no practices, no outside guests- just the teachers preparing and getting those [packets] ready and either delivering them or having a pickup spot for students and families to get what they need.”
A school district can go red when cases are on the rise, Bolen said.
“In Unalakleet, it was a breakout of students in a certain grade level, and it turns out they had quite a few close contacts,” Bolen said. “Although there were only 12 or so positive cases, it affected probably 120 or so people, so it was just safer to go distance delivery.”
Several schools exited red status this week, including St. Michael and Stebbins, which came out Monday, Diomede, and Shaktoolik. Teller school entered red status on Tuesday and Unalakleet will be red through Friday of this week.
As flu season approaches, COVID-19 vaccination rates in Nome and the surrounding villages are stagnating.  On Monday, September 13, 65 percent of the entire region was fully vaccinated. Two percent of regional residents have received their first dose of a vaccine, but vaccination rates in several villages remain low.
Nome, the largest community in the region, has the highest vaccination rate with 74 percent of the total population fully vaccinated. Little Diomede, with a population of just over 100 people, has fully vaccinated just 39 percent of the village.
“We do have a significant portion of our community vaccinated, but it really varies from village to village,” explained Lemaire. “The best thing we can do to protect ourselves, to protect our elders and our kids is to get vaccinated.”
Vaccines are available in every care facility across the region, and in early September, NSHC rolled out the optional booster vaccine for anyone who received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. The booster vaccines are available for anyone who received their second dose of a vaccine more than six months ago.
Lemaire said the booster vaccine may cause some side effects, but that side effects just mean the vaccine is working.
“Some people might experience some symptoms of their bodies normal immune response after getting their COVID booster shot,” he told the Nugget. “Not everyone experiences the same immune response symptoms with the booster that they did with their second COVID shot.  Some of the evidence that your body is building an immune response are, headache, low grade fever, chills, body aches, nausea, feeling tired and muscle soreness where you got the shot. These are all good signs and show that your body is making antibodies to fight COVID.”
As the region prepares to enter flu season, Lemaire encouraged participants in the weekly COVID-19 conference call to get their flu shots when NSHC makes them available later this fall.
“We want to get as many people as we can vaccinated against the flu,” he said. “The flu does kill people every year and we want to make sure we protect as many people as we can.”
Though people can get their flu shots and their COVID-19 shots on the same day, NSHC is recommending people space out their vaccinates.  “We would recommend separating the COVID booster and the flu shot by about two weeks,” Lemaire said. “There is no increased risk of harm getting them on the same day, it just might be uncomfortable as your body builds immune response to two vaccines.”
Across the state of Alaska, there have been 97,326 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began, including 4,535 in the last week, and almost 700 diagnoses just on Monday. In the state, there have been 2,450 hospitalizations, included 202 currently hospitalized and 33 COVID patients currently on ventilators. Around Alaska, only 23 ICU beds remain available; 466 people have died of COVID-19 since the pandemic began in March, 2020.
In Nome, Norton Sound and the Bering Strait, there have been 909 cases of COVID, including 16 cases diagnosed in the last week, and 12 total hospitalizations. There have been zero COVID-19 related deaths in the region since the pandemic began.

 

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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