Sitka’s coronavirus alert level remains at “low,” according to the city’s COVID dashboard. Between March 1 and March 7, three new cases of the virus were reported in Sitka, though one of the cases is over three months old.
A woman in her forties, a man in his fifties and a child all tested positive for the virus. All three are Sitka residents.
Two of the patients received their COVID test last week, but the male patient was tested in November. In an email to KCAW, Public Health Nurse Denise Ewing explained that the information was delivered to Alaska from another state “in an untimely manner” causing the delay in local reporting. Even with the delay, she said public health still follows the contact tracing process for each patient.
Since the start of the pandemic, 328 coronavirus cases have been reported in Sitka–294 of them were Sitka residents. As of Monday afternoon, five cases are considered “active.”
Sitka’s vaccination rate is slowly increasing. According to city data, just under 57 percent of eligible Sitkans have received at least one shot, and 49 percent are fully vaccinated, up from 46 percent last week. Today, the CDC issued new recommendations, easing some restrictions for fully vaccinated people. You can read the full list of recommendations on our website, on the COVID information hub.
