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Petersburg Medical Center will be holding a combination of small and large COVID-19 vaccination clinics in April as the community reaches a full vaccinated population of 33.9 percent, or 1,085 people, according to the borough's COVID-19 Dashboard. PMC Director of Nursing Jennifer Bryner said at the COVID-19 community update on March 19 that the hospital will be holding a smaller COVID-19 vaccine clinic at PMC for residents receiving their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine in early April. On Apri...
Six cases of COVID-19 were reported in Petersburg on Monday, according to a joint press release from the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. Five of the cases were identified through PMC's symptomatic testing, and one case was identified through the asymptomatic testing at the Petersburg James A. Johnson Airport. Public Health investigation will determine if any of these cases are connected to the previous Petersburg outbreak. All positive cases have been directed to isolate by... Full story
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is predicting an increase to the total statewide salmon harvest this year thanks to a pink salmon run expected to bring in 63.5 million fish over last year's harvest. According to an ADF&G report, the total commercial salmon harvest in Alaska is projected to be 190.1 million fish. In 2020, 118.3 million fish were harvested statewide. The report states the increase to the state harvest is due to a larger pink salmon harvest compared to last year. ADF&G is pr...
About a week before Christmas, Joseph Tagaban, 13, started experiencing a toothache in the lower left side of this jaw. His parents, Ed and Je Tagaban, made an appointment with a local dentist after the pain continued, but a lump underneath his tooth soon began growing. Ed said he thought the dentist was just going to drain the lump and treat Joseph's toothache, but instead, the Tagaban family ended up traveling to Juneau to see an oral surgeon. The surgeon performed an operation on Joseph and...
Petersburg's COVID-19 case count remained at 10 on Wednesday, as no new cases of the virus were reported and no infected residents were released from isolation, according to a joint press release for the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. Wednesday was the second day in a row that Petersburg had an active case count of 10. In the past week, Petersburg has reported five new cases of COVID-19, but 12 infected residents were released from isolation in that same timeframe. The drop...
State health officials held a town hall meeting via Zoom on Wednesday to give an overview of the recent COVID-19 outbreak in Petersburg and answer any questions. Since Feb. 18, Petersburg has reported new cases of COVID-19 nearly every single day, while maintaining an active case count. Since the outbreak peaked at 68 cases on March 3, Petersburg has seen a steady decrease in cases. As of Tuesday, Petersburg has recorded 94 cases of the virus since Feb. 18. State health officials were able to...
The Petersburg Police Department is warning the public to be on their guard as scammers look to swindle residents into sending them money. "Historically this time of year there is an increase in email and telephone scammers trying to convince the recipient to send them money, transfer funds by wire or bank to bank, or even gift cards in lieu of funds," said PPD Captain Randall Holmgrain in an email to the Pilot. "The scammers are equal opportunity but will specifically target the elderly or...
The overall 2020 salmon harvest in Southeast Alaska was down by about 56 percent compared to 2019, as all five commercially harvested salmon species runs came in below recent and long term averages. About 14.6 million salmon were harvested in Southeast Alaska last year, which was down from the 33.5 million salmon harvested in 2019, according to a season report by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Statewide, salmon harvests were down by 14.4 million from the preseason forecast, with 118.3...
Approximately 250 residents were vaccinated at Petersburg Medical Center's COVID-19 vaccination clinic on Friday, which was the hospital's second vaccination clinic this month, according to PMC Phil Hofstetter at the COVID-19 community update on Friday. A combination of first doses and second doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, as well as the single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, were administered. Theresa Ruzek, a public health nurse manager with the state of Alaska, said the state and...
Six people addressed the Borough Assembly at a work session on March 10 to express their support and opposition to legislation that would transfer 23,040 acres of federal land within the Petersburg Borough to an Urban Corporation. The intention of the work session was to give the public an opportunity to share their opinions with the Borough Assembly on the Unrecognized Southeast Alaska Native Communities Recognition and Compensation Act before the bill is reintroduced to the 117th United...
Three sixth graders at Mitkof Middle School have placed in the statewide 2021 virtual Native Youth Olympic games. Elias Anderson placed first in the Seal Hop with a distance of 81 feet and 10 inches. He also took the bronze medal in the Two-Foot High Kick with a height of 52 inches. Gunner Washke also placed in the Seal Hop and secured himself the bronze medal with a distance of 48 feet and 5.25 inches. Paige Hansen finished third in the state for the girls Kneel Jump and took home the bronze...
Petersburg's COVID-19 case count continued to fall on Thursday. With three new cases identified and six infected residents released from isolation, the active case count is at 13 as of Thursday afternoon, according to a joint press release from the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical. Of the three new cases added to Petersburg's active case count, two were identified locally and one was reported outside of the community. Petersburg has seen eight straight days of its decline in active... Full story
About 400 residents received their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at Petersburg Medical Center's vaccine clinic on March 5, and 1,000 residents are expected to be fully vaccinated in the next two weeks, according to PMC CEO Phil Hofsetter at Monday's Borough Assembly Meeting. PMC will be hosting another COVID-19 vaccine clinic on Friday, March 12 at the Parks and Recreation community gym. The clinic will focus on administering the first dose of the vaccine, but some second doses will also...
About 200 patients at Petersburg Medical Center may have had their medical records viewed inappropriately in a data breach, said PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter in a prepared statement on KFSK on March 4. PMC first became aware of the data breach when an employee told the hospital's compliance officer that another employee may be committing curiosity lookups. PMC employees are only allowed to look up a patient's medical record when their job requires them to do so, said Hofstetter. The hospital...
Sixteen infected residents were released from isolation on Wednesday, while just one new active case has been added to Petersburg's active COVID-19 case count, according to a joint press release from the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. Additionally, Petersburg is only reporting 16 active cases of COVID-19 as of 4 P.M. on Wednesday. The current case count is the lowest the town has seen since Feb. 21 when Petersburg was reporting 13 cases. The Petersburg Operations Center has...
An audit of the borough's finances for the 2020 fiscal year reveals an overall positive change in the borough's net position from July 1, 2019 through June 20, 2020, according to documents presented to the Borough Assembly at their Feb. 22 meeting. The audit was conducted by BDO and was presented to the assembly by Sam Thompson, an auditor with the accounting firm. The audit showed a positive change in the net position of $825,913 for the 2020 fiscal year. Additionally, the unassigned fund...
A Petersburg Economic Development Council document that highlights opportunities within the community to improve the local tourism industry has been given to the Borough Assembly to be reviewed. The Visitor Industry Management Plan categorizes Petersburg's tourism industry. A working group selected a goal for each category and presented several actions the borough could take to reach that goal. The six categories are quality of life, maximize local benefits, infrastructure and planning,...
The Borough Assembly approved an ordinance in its third reading on Monday that reinstates user fees at the Parks and Recreation Center and makes changes to the fee structure. Ordinance #2021-03 reestablishes user fees at the Parks and Recreation Center. The facility had been waiving user fees since the facility reopened in August after it closed its doors at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The ordinance also groups all users into two categories and establishes three types of fees. Those...
Petersburg High School will test students involved in interscholastic, in-person sports that involve competition and travel on a weekly basis as the Petersburg School District looks for ways to get students participating in activities again, according to school district officials at the Petersburg School Board meeting on Tuesday. The school district will be using BinaxNOW Antigen tests, which are a low-level indicator for possible COVID-19 infection. Only high school students and their coaches w...
Southeast Alaska Power Agency will likely have to raise rates to pay off bonding for the replacement of a damaged submarine cable, said SEAPA board voting member Bob Lynn at a Borough Assembly meeting Monday. At a recent SEAPA board meeting, board members discussed bonding as a way to pay for the approximately $14 million replacement submarine cable. SEAPA has to pay Sumitomo, a Japanese firm, for the cable at one time, but $14 million is nearly all SEAPA has in financial assets, said Lynn. The...
Petersburg's COVID-19 active case count is down to 10 as no new cases were reported on Tuesday, according to a joint press release from the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. One infected resident was released from isolation, which brought the active case count from 11 to 10, according to the press release. The current active case count is continuing its downward trend after the number of infected residents peaked at 68 on March 3. On Monday, the Emergency Operations Center... Full story
The Petersburg Emergency Operations Center has lowered the local community COVID-19 risk level from red to orange Monday morning, according to a joint press release from the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. There were several reasons the EOC made the decision to lower the local risk level from high to moderate. Several recent positive cases have come from households where infected residents were isolated according to the press release. Additionally, the COVID-19 positivity rate... Full story
The Petersburg Medical Center has discovered that one of its employees may have broken PMC's code of conduct and violated federal healthcare privacy laws when the staff member accessed medical information of patients not under their direct care, according to a press release from PMC. An internal investigation was conducted, which determined the records were inappropriately viewed; however, the investigation found that the violation was an internal breach and patient information did not go beyond...
Despite the ongoing outbreak, PMC is still scheduled to hold their next two COVID-19 vaccine distribution clinics. The first will be held on March 5 and residents who received their first dose of the vaccine on Feb. 5 will receive their second dose, said PMC Infection Prevention and Quality Manager Liz Bacom at the COVID-19 community update on Feb. 26. The March 12 clinic will mostly be giving out first doses to residents, but some second doses will also be administered. Both vaccine clinics...
Instead of his usual report, Petersburg Medical Center CEO Phil Hofstetter asked Dr. Jennifer Hyer to give the PMC Board of Directors a detailed report of how the hospital has been responding to the local outbreak of COVID-19 at their meeting on Feb. 25. Hyer was on call during the weekend of Feb. 19, 20 and 21 when active cases of COVID-19 began increasing in Petersburg. The active cases were being identified from different locations around town. While PMC had always been able to trace...
