Update — Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO and Alaska Public Media
Gov. Mike Dunleavy said on Wednesday that Alaska is in a better position than other states to reopen hair salons and tattoo parlors.
Dunleavy made the comments on the same day that President Donald Trump said he disagreed with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision to reopen similar businesses.
Trump said he strongly disagreed with Kemp and that opening salons would violate the federal guidelines on the first phase of reopening.
Dunleavy noted that Alaska has fewer cases and more hospital capacity than some other states.
“This is a road not traveled for some time, in the past 100 years. And so we’re going to watch it carefully,” he said. “But we think we have the ability, we think with Alaskans’ help, we will keep our numbers low. Again, if there’s a spike, we’ll deal with that accordingly.”
Alaska Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink talked about the information that went into the decision to open these personal care businesses. She said she’s talked with people who have similar jobs as her in other states about what businesses they’re opening.
Zink said frequently cleaning surfaces and washing hands will be particularly important for these businesses, as will wearing face coverings.
“I don’t think there’s any way to protect all Alaskans 100 percent from anything,” she said. “And we are just doing our best with the information and data we have.”
Zink noted that it’s her job to give health guidance while Dunleavy’s team and Health and Social Services Commissioner Adam Crum will fill in how health mandates should change.
Original story — Rashah McChesney, KTOO
Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s latest COVID-19 press conference is scheduled for 5 p.m.
The governor, Health and Social Services Commissioner Adam Crum and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink have been holding these briefings almost daily since March 10.
During Wednesday’s briefing, they’ll outline mandates to reopen Alaska’s economy and share the latest on the number of Alaskans sickened with COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus.
The number of Alaskans diagnosed with COVID-19 increased by six by the end of the day Tuesday, bringing the total to 335.
Four of the Alaskans are from Anchorage, one is from Juneau and one is from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.
In total, 196 Alaskans have recovered. The total number of deaths and hospitalizations has not changed: Thirty-six Alaskans have been hospitalized with the disease, and nine have died — two of them died out of state. Nearly 11,000 tests have been administered.
The health department is reporting 853 of 1,800 inpatient hospital beds in the state are currently occupied, with both COVID-19 cases and non-COVID cases. A total of 77 of 195 of the ICU beds are full, and 27 of 336 ventilators are in use.
On Tuesday, Dunleavy announced that restaurants and retailers could open by Friday.
That includes:
- Restaurants — limited dine-in services
- Retail stores — limited in-store shopping
- Personal services businesses (i.e. barbers, nail salons, hairdressers) — limited services
- Nonessential businesses (i.e. professional business services) — limited services
He said there would be further guidance released by Wednesday.
These public health mandates that have reshaped daily life across Alaska to combat the spread of the virus. Those, and other Alaska-specific COVID-19 resources and information, are available at coronavirus.alaska.gov.
You can watch Wednesday’s press conference live on this post, the governor’s Facebook or Livestream pages, or on 360 North television.
The headline for this story has been updated.
