The municipal health department tasked with investigating COVID-19 in Anchorage is dealing with a group of infections among its own employees.
The Anchorage Health Department announced Friday that six workers tested positive as other cases were reported across the city in multiple departments.
The state also announced Friday the temporary closure of the Atwood Building, which houses state agencies, due to a positive COVID-19 test by a worker there.
The building will be closed until Monday to allow cleanup, according to a statement from Gov. spokesman Mike Dunleavy. The governor announced Wednesday that he was requiring masks for state employees and visitors in state buildings and facilities.
The worker who tested positive had no symptoms of the virus and was found through contact tracing, the governor’s office said. An Oil and Gas Division employee tested positive for the virus last week, but a general email was not sent to employees beyond close coworkers until this week.
Across Alaska, the state reported 65 new coronavirus infections on Friday involving 59 residents and six non-residents, according to the Alaska Department of Health and Human Services panel COVID-19. No new deaths were reported. Nineteen Alaskans have died from the virus.
As of Thursday, 22 patients with COVID-19 were hospitalized in Anchorage, a number that has increased by two or three patients in recent days. At least one of the approximately 175 fish products workers brought to Anchorage for isolation this week is sick enough to require hospitalization, Anchorage health officials say. The state’s three largest outbreaks are in the fishing industry.
On Friday, the city of Seward announced two more cases associated with an outbreak at an OBI Seafoods processing plant there, the state’s largest outbreak so far with 98 total positive cases. Most employees show no symptoms, and none were hospitalized, according to the city.
Across the state, on Friday, there were 27 residents diagnosed with COVID at the hospital and another 10 under investigation, health officials say. A total of 111 residents have been hospitalized since March.
In a briefing on Friday, Anchorage medical officer Dr. Bruce Chandler urged residents to avoid all meetings, especially indoors. Chandler said he heard from an emergency doctor this week that “people were admitted to the hospital, all of whom attended a grand funeral last week.”
According to department director Natasha Pineda, among the municipal health workers who tested positive, state contact trackers determined that they had no close contact with other staff or clients.
Clients were notified of the positive cases as a precaution, Pineda said. Health workers wore personal protection, and the department requires that they cover their faces and check visitors and workers before entering, he said. The department has also increased cleaning hours during the day.
Still, Pineda said, the health department will likely have more cases “as COVID-19 is rapidly spreading in Anchorage” and the risk of infection continues to rise.
The department is at the center of the COVID-19 municipal response. Health department employees track contacts, study the ways the virus is spreading within the community, and help develop policies in response.
The Anchorage Assembly learned in a July 12 report that the department was investigating itself. The report described cases under investigation “associated with a variety of community businesses, agencies and organizations, for example, child care centers, residential treatment facilities, a gymnasium, a grocery store, sports equipment, a place of worship and ours Department. “
Anchorage is at the epicenter of the growing number of cases of COVID-19 residents in the state, with 672 people considered actively infected as of Thursday of 1,098 confirmed in the municipality since the pandemic began in March. Statewide, there were 1,799 active infections reported Friday from a total of 2,748 since March.
Anchorage residents generally account for the majority of new cases reported in the past few weeks as the state establishes new records for daily counts. Anchorage hit its own record with 65 cases on Sunday.
Among the duties of health officials: track all people with whom an infected person may have had close contact while contagious. Municipal health authorities began to warn several weeks ago that their ability to search for contacts was overwhelmed by the increase in new cases.
Natasha Pineda, director of the Anchorage Health Department (participating via video conference), and Mayor Ethan Berkowitz speak during a community meeting on COVID-19 last month. (Screenshot)
Berkowitz also announced Thursday that Pineda would leave the director position and named Heather Harris as the new director. A statement to the media did not elaborate on the reason for the transition, but Berkowitz said Pineda “stayed much longer than she agreed to serve” and described her as revitalizing and reorganizing the department during the November 2018 earthquake and ongoing pandemic.
Harris begins August 24, according to the mayor’s statement.
Pineda said the city is transitioning to new updated contact tracking software in mid-August. But for now, the city is backed by “enough days” to come up with positive cases, he said. She and Chandler both encouraged those who tested positive to contact themselves.
Of the 59 new infections among Alaska residents reported by the state, Anchorage residents accounted for 33. The other cases involved one Kenai resident and six in Seward, where 96 workers at a seafood processing plant tested positive; one in Córdoba and one in a smaller community in the Valdez-Córdoba census area; five at Fairbanks and one at the North Pole; one in the Yukon-Koyukuk census area; one in Wasilla; one in a smaller community in the Nome Census Area; two in Juneau; four in Ketchikan; one in the Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon area; and one in a smaller community in the Bethel census area.
Five of the new nonresident cases were in Seward and one was classified as unknown.
As of Friday, the state had conducted 200,572 tests and the average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous three days was 2.38%, according to state health authorities.
Of the 59 Alaska residents who tested positive for the cases reported Friday, two are under the age of 10; four are from 10 to 19; 19 are over 20 years old; 10 are in their 30s; six are in their 40s; nine are over 50 years old; six are over 60 years old; two are 70; and one is 80 years or older.
Reporter Morgan Krakow contributed to this story.
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