Sitka’s COVID count increased again over the last week, but the city’s alert level remains ‘low.’
Between May 2 and May 9, Sitka reported 4 new coronavirus infections according to city data. A young woman between 10 and 19 years old, a man in his 30s, and a man and woman both in their 50s tested positive for the virus. Three of the patients are residents whose cases are travel-related. The fourth is a non-resident patient. Her case is tied to community spread.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Sitka has reported 369 coronavirus cases. Six of those cases are “active,” according to city data
At least two recent cases in Sitka are connected to a COVID outbreak in Ketchikan following a high school wrestling tournament. Last week, the Ketchikan EOC reported a case each at Sitka and Mt. Edgecumbe High Schools.
KCAW spoke with Sitka School District Superintendent John Holst, who says one Sitka High School wrestler tested positive for COVID after the April 23 tournament. The student has since recovered and returned to class. Several of the wrestler’s close contacts were quarantined, and all of them tested negative.
In an email to KCAW, Public Health Nurse Grace Roller says that the positive patient at Mt. Edgecumbe High School is now out of isolation and close contacts have been cleared. She says MEHS recently reported another case that is unrelated to wrestling.
Roller says that some of Sitka’s recent travel related cases are connected to Ketchikan’s outbreak as well. Ketchikan was reporting 67 active cases late last week, fueled by several “clusters” of the virus.
