Juneau city officials reported 32 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday.
Local Government
Without safety net of health mandates, Anchorage’s strained, understaffed hospitals brace for more patients
Anchorage hospitals have roughly half of Alaska’s 120 intensive care unit beds, making the city the nerve center of the state’s health care infrastructure. Right now, that infrastructure is stretched nearly to its limit.
Sitka Assembly removes landslide section from city code
After the deadly landslides in 2015 killed three people, the assembly commissioned landslide mapping to assess risk throughout Sitka and adopted a new section of city code that restricted development in areas with “moderate” or “high” landslide risk.
Anchorage Mayor Bronson fined over $30,000 for campaign reporting violations
Bronson faces a separate fine of $52,650 for other apparent violations and “utterly confusing” campaign reporting.
Proposed update to Juneau’s hazard maps heads to Planning Commission
Juneau’s Planning Commission will consider updated landslide and avalanche maps at a Tuesday night meeting. The city’s current maps were created in the 1970s.
Another top doctor resigns in Anchorage as new health director faces tough questions
Assembly members asked Morgan about social media posts and other online comments he’d made suggesting COVID-19 is a hoax and denying the efficacy of masks.
Sitka enacts its first mask mandate
The Sitka Assembly previously considered a mask mandate back in July of 2020. Though it was a resolution with no enforcement arm, it still didn’t pass. This time around, things were different.
Locals praise and admonish Juneau Assembly before it extends COVID measures
It wasn’t discussed much during the meeting, but a defined end point and the idea of letting personal choices prevail are in the latest version of the city’s framework.
Juneau requires masks again as COVID-19 cases rise
The main change that goes with that is a requirement for everyone, regardless of vaccination status, to wear masks in indoor public settings, and outdoors when people can’t keep 6 feet apart.
COVID is spiking and hospitals are filling up. But Alaska leaders aren’t bringing back mandates.
Both Gov. Dunleavy and Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson are declining to use the types of mandates, restrictions and testing requirements the city and state used to try to minimize the spread of the virus the last time case counts were this high.