Alaska has tested more for COVID-19 than most states. Now as the cases increase some do not want to do some tests.

Cases of Alaskan COVID-19 increased in September, although Alaskan tests for the virus, which caused very few infectious diseases, fell short.

This week marks a nearly two-week triple-digit daily increase, with health officials saying COVID-19 has been accelerating the spread in the community, especially in Anchorage, Fairbanks and northern Alaska.

The drop in testing after reaching national highs this summer is not surprising, as it is necessary to check the counts sent by thousands of seafood workers and incoming tourists.

But there is also a growing number of Covid-19 critics who simply do not want to be tested and are discouraging others from doing so, top health officials say. Perhaps they are suffering from “COVID fatigue” months later under epidemic restrictions. Or maybe they believe that less positivity will lead to schools and industries again. President Donald Trump, who was hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19 last week, has repeatedly disappointed with extensive testing during the epidemic.

Health officials say the strategy could backfire.

Alaska Chief Medical An Fischer Dr. CO. According to Ann Zinc, people with Covid-1 can detect symptoms two days before and two days after they become infected. That’s why it’s important to test as much as possible: to ensure that positive cases are caught before the virus spreads to vulnerable people, such as senior care centers, or that it will actually outbreak the most that can turn things off.

Zinc receives skeptics, field questions, and angry emails from health workers on the Tasty Testing Forum. Some call the virus a betrayal or label the test as a “DNA biopsy” of which they do not want to be part.

Zinc also feels the first hand of skeptics in an emergency-room shift still working at the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center near Wasila: patients refuse the test because they have no way of not having Covid-1, or saying they Should be separated from home. That subject to nasal swab.

“I don’t know how prevalent it is … we don’t have a good survey on it,” he said in an interview last week. “But I know our testing has come down, it’s not a supply chain, and our percentage has increased. So those are purposeful things that I have to work on. ”

An anchorage business owner who did not want to be identified said he was skeptical about the amount of testing on people who test without symptoms who then test positive and run a case rate without illness.

For her, having allergy symptoms or having no symptoms at all may seem unnecessary, especially if a new case adds ammunition to a business termination that destroys economic and personal life, sometimes to the point of suicide.

But he also said he would test it if he had obvious symptoms.

For others, there was no reason to test, circulating on social media via a viral post in mid-September.

A member of the private OpenAlaska Facebook group has shared a debunked post by English conspiracy theorist David Ike. The group has 7,100 members who are pushing for an end to coronavirus-related restrictions such as mask orders, school closures and business capacity limits.

“Can people just stop testing? Do you understand that you are adding to the problem and taking us to the second phase of lockdown? Are you giving the government the number of cases and the power to take us into the winter lockdown? Just stop testing and this will disappear overnight …., ‘says Ike’s post. “If you’re good enough to go to the test center, you’re fine, stay home safe for 2 weeks, eat well and take your vitamins and then crack!”

The post received 89 likes and about 20 comments in favor, with some choosing to stay home rather than test.

Tom Hennessy, an infectious disease epidemiologist and affiliated faculty member at the University of Alaska Anchorage, said resistance to testing is understandable. People may be afraid of the consequences and their consequences at their workplace, employment or school.

“However, in the long run, we can’t control the epidemic unless people with symptoms of covid are diagnosed and, ultimately, the epidemic spreads and hurts us all,” Hennessy said last week. “So I think testing is an important civic responsibility. And that’s the step people need to take, even if it’s personally inconvenient for them.”

Statewide, the level of the Covid-19 test dropped from more than 130,300 in July to just 74,000 in September, according to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, according to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. More recently, the weekly test average has dropped from about 24,000 in late August to just 21,000 in late September.

But now, perhaps because more people are showing symptoms as the virus level rises, or perhaps because the growing number of cases is giving them more warnings, the level of testing is rising again.

Officials say Anchorage’s municipal test sites saw an increase in people wanting to be tested about two weeks ago. First, the test volume increased by about 25%. Last week, it rose 75% compared to a fairly stable number in% gust.

According to Cassandra Ghesad, director of laboratory services there, Fairbanks has processed more tests than seen in the past few months at Memorial H Hospital Spit Lab, about 250 tests a day.

Tana’s chiefs conference, which serves the tribes and hosts clinics in six villages in Alaska last week, had its most tests last week, said Alyssa Alexander, a senior medical officer there. At the same time, she said, they also have a record number of positive test results.

Alexander had not heard of resistance to the test, but said many patients tested positive with extremely mild or not typhoid COVID-19 symptoms.

In Met-Sum, where Capstone Clinic operates drive-thru test sites, more people came to the test in September than in August, as schools here opened in late August, according to co-owner Dr Wade Erickson. Testing was also underway at Capstone’s Kenai site.

“I don’t seem to refuse to test anyone,” Ericsson said. “They’re more than happy to be tested.”

Even today, Alaska’s test rates remain among the best in the country.

Alaska has conducted nearly half a million tests, reflecting a number of aggressive testing strategies but thousands of summer seafood workers and travelers are required to take the tests several times to meet state orders to be safe from people importing COVID-19 from the state. Out.

Of all the relatively healthy people who took the test the state test took down the positive rate, the number of positive results out of the total number of tests performed to find out if there were enough tests to prevent the spread of the virus.

Now, while we are still one of the most tested states in the country, our test positivity rate is rising to a 5% warning level that health officials are not indicating adequate testing to the bar. Alaska’s goal is to keep that level below 2%, given our limited health-care capacity and isolation.

The statewide positivity rate as of Tuesday was 4.0.% Was%, the highest estimate Alaska has seen. That number remained below 2% for most of August. As of Monday, the national average was 8.8%.

Other measures of the virus remain relatively positive. The lowest per capita virus-related death toll in any state, Covid-1, has been reported in Alaska, but due to significant delays in recent weeks, the number has risen sharply.

So far, the number of people hospitalized with the virus has remained fairly stable – even then declining – although Anchorage officials say they see older patients at greater risk of serious illness or death. They are concerned that the spike in the current case will threaten ICU capacity this fall.

In general, health officials say, they are now finding it easier to treat the virus than when the epidemic began. There is an adequate supply of masks and other protective gear.

That’s the state’s lack of benefits in March, Zinc said.

He said the disadvantages are frustration and misinformation – “Why are we testing? Why is this happening ?? “- Spread by month’s restrictions and limits.

“This epidemic wears off for too long, for very natural reasons, it’s hard to catch up,” Zinc said. “And so I think it’s a tidal wave that we’re fighting.”