After a short-lived dip in cases that saw the city’s alert level drop to “moderate” earlier in the week, Sitka returned to “high” on Friday (1-8-21).

Since Monday (1-4-20), seven Sitkans have been diagnosed with the coronavirus. All were tested in the last week, according to the city’s COVID dashboard. Four of them were experiencing symptoms when they received testing. The patients range in age from several in their 20s to one in her 90s.

Five of the cases are considered “secondary” meaning the patients had close contact with a person who tested positive for the coronavirus. The sixth case is tied to community spread, and the seventh is travel related.

After nearly three months at “high alert” level, the level shifted down to “moderate” on Wednesday (1-6-20) as cases had slowly trickled off over the last couple of weeks. The city was back on high alert just two days later, after more cases were reported on Wednesday and Thursday evening. The Sitka School District’s alert level remains at “medium” and all schools are expected to open for in-person instruction for the first time on Monday (1-11-20).