Regarding COVID-19, at what point, or under what conditions do you think Juneau should fully reopen?

  • District 1 Assembly

    • Troy Wuyts-Smith

      Candidate for District 1 Assembly

      That’s a tough question. First of all, it comes down to safety here. Do I think right now, we should just snap our fingers and say, “Let’s fully reopen and get back to normal?” No, I don’t believe so. Because I believe that we still have cases on the rise. And it’s still a difficult scenario and situation. However, I do believe that we do need to reopen at full capacity to help revive our economy and tourism and help our small businesses as well. But as of right now, we need to encourage people to keep getting vaccinated and to wear the masks if they can’t, because that is what’s going to limit cases, help us open back up.

    • Barbara 'Wáahlaal Gíidaak Blake

      Candidate for District 1 Assembly

      I don’t think we should consider fully reopening until we are at zero number of cases on a daily basis, and it needs to be steady for at least a month. We have so many precious people here in Juneau, our elders, our youth, those who are aren’t able to be vaccinated because of their age. I want to see that continue. I want to see our school continue, but I don’t think we should reopen until everybody’s safe.

    • Paul Kelly

      Candidate for District 1 Assembly

      I would be comfortable fully reopening consistent with the advice of the EOC and the CDC. I would like to see little to no community spread.

  • District 2 Assembly

    • Kelly Fishler

      Candidate for District 2 Assembly

      This entire campaign has been mostly centered around our public health policies. It’s my opinion that the assembly did a really good job and the best job that they were able to do, as well as the school board, early on last year. Since then, we’ve learned a lot about the virus. So last year, when we were so concerned about our physical health and our community’s public health, as a whole, we neglected our economy and our mental health. I would say it’s time to begin reopening now.

    • Michelle Bonnet Hale

      Candidate for District 2 Assembly

      Our Emergency Operations Center has added a green category and this was at the request of Mayor Weldon. At what point should we fully reopen? And the green category, I believe, is when basically when everybody who qualifies for a vaccine has qualified for the time it takes to get it doesn’t mean they all have to have had it. It’s just that they qualified for the time it takes.

  • Mayor

    • Beth Weldon

      Candidate for Mayor

      Looking at our mitigation strategies, which you can find our website at juneau.org, we do have a green level in which I believe it’s at 97% of the population can be vaccinated. So as soon as the vaccination can come out for the children, and they have time to get vaccinated, I think Juneau should fully reopen.