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The company trying to build a huge copper and gold mine in the salmon-rich Bristol Bay will keep fighting for the project, despite a decision by the federal government to keep the proposed development site off-limits to large-scale metals mining. John Shively, chief executive officer of the Pebble Limited Partnership, made that vow in a presentation at the Alaska Miners Association annual convention in Anchorage. He said the Pebble mine had the potential to transform the economy and improve lives in the rural Bristol Bay region, just as he... Full story
The Petersburg Medical Center reported seventeen positive cases of COVID-19 Wednesday while several tests are currently pending. Contract tracing has been initiated by Public Health and it is believed that community spread is most likely the avenue of transmission for some cases. The Petersburg School District also reported that several students have recently tested positive for COVID-19 and the district has entered red status. Universal masking was reintroduced and after school practices were...
Breakthrough COVID-19 cases found in Alaska April 30 Between Feb. 1 and March 31, Alaska Department of Health and Social Services identified 152 positive cases of COVID-19 among people in the state who were fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a report from DHSS. About 74 percent of the vaccine breakthrough cases, or 112 individuals, were among people who had received the Pfizer vaccine, according to the report. Thirty-eight percent of the breakthrough cases had received the Moderna... Full story
The Petersburg Emergency Operations Center reassessed the local COVID-19 risk level on Monday and lowered the community from a moderate risk to a low risk level. The decision comes as Petersburg recovers from a local outbreak. Petersburg was at a red risk level or COVID-19 transmission for 22 days. The community was at an orange risk level for just one week before the EOC lowered it down to yellow. As of Wednesday, Petersburg has gone over seven days without a new case of COVID-19 being reported...
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...
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...
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
Two cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the community on Monday, after three consecutive days of no new cases, according to a joint press release from the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. As of Monday afternoon, Petersburg has 35 active cases of COVID-19. Two cases were confirmed on Monday, and six infected residents were released from isolation. Monday's two positive cases were the first identified in the community since Thursday. The Emergency Operations Center reported zero... Full story
Seven more residents tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing Petersburg's total active case count to 36, according to a joint press release from the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center issued Wednesday evening. A large number of the current positive cases have been the result of community spread, but Incident Commander Karl Hagerman said the EOC hasn't been able to pinpoint any one business or location that has led to community spread of the virus. In response to the...
The Emergency Operations Center is maintaining Petersburg's high risk level for COVID-19 transmission for at least another seven days, as positive cases of the virus continue to be identified and residents begin to recover. The EOC will assess the status of the recent COVID-19 outbreak on March 8 to determine whether or not to extend the community's red status, according to a joint press release from the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. Two more cases were confirmed on Monday,... Full story
There are 30 active cases of COVID-19 in Petersburg as of 3 P.M. Tuesday, all of which were reported in the last six days, according to a joint press release from the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. The current active cases are predominately symptomatic and were infected through community spread, according to the press release. Public health officials are investigating the active cases, but contact tracing is proving difficult. Cases first started to appear in town Thursday,... Full story
The Emergency Operations Center has increased the local risk of COVID-19 spread to red, following 13 new active cases identified in the last four days, according to a joint press release from Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. The EOC is currently reporting 16 active cases in the community. Of the current active cases, 11 are considered to be community spread, according to the press release. Those infected with COVID-19 are both symptomatic and asymptomatic, and two infected... Full story
Petersburg COVID-19 case count has risen by six cases since Monday evening for a total of 26 active cases, according to the Emergency Operations Center COVID-19 Dashboard. Twenty-four of the active cases are currently in Petersburg, while the remaining two cases are infected residents who are outside of the community, according to Incident Commander Karl Hagerman at a special Borough Assembly meeting on Tuesday. The EOC issued a CodeRed alert Monday evening to make the community aware of the... Full story
The Petersburg Emergency Operations Center lowered the community risk of COVID-19 transmission from orange to yellow, or level one on Wednesday, according to a joint press between the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. Although the current active case number in town is nine as of Wednesday afternoon, the EOC said the cases were a part of household clusters and have been isolated from the community; as a result, the EOC is able to lower the overall community risk level. However, an...
The Petersburg School District postponed reopening the schools to students on Wednesday following Petersburg Emergency Operation Center's announcement on Monday that it was raising the local risk level for COVID-19 from yellow to orange. Students were set to return to school from winter break on Wednesday, Jan. 6, but the school district decided to switch to remote learning for the first week of the new year. In a message to parents, PSD officials said the school district would typically move...
The Borough Assembly, at their meeting on Monday, approved the Community Risk Communication Plan, which tracks the COVID-19 situation in town and offers guidelines. The Community Risk Communication Plan uses a dashboard that presents the risk level of COVID-19 in the borough, at Petersburg Medical Center and Petersburg School District on a day to day basis. It displays the total amount of COVID-19 tests on the local population and divides the data into different metrics, like the percentage of...
The Petersburg Emergency Operations Center raised the local risk level for COVID-19 from yellow to orange on Monday after Petersburg saw six active cases of the virus within seven days, according to a joint media release between the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. "Following the holidays, and some holiday travel, Petersburg is definitely seeing an uptick in COVID-19 cases," said Incident Commander Karl Hagerman to the Borough Assembly at their meeting on Monday. Details of the... Full story
Petersburg's Emergency Operations Center has released the draft of its risk communication plan and COVID-19 dashboard, which will monitor the status of the virus in the community and offer mitigation strategies based on the current risk level. The dashboard utilizes four risk levels ranging from green to red to gauge the local COVID-19 status. It also monitors the risk levels at Petersburg Medical Center and Petersburg School District. Data on the dashboard shows COVID-19 tests numbers and any...
The Borough Assembly extended the borough's health mandate that places COVID-19 protocols on vessels docking and disembarking at borough harbor facilities for the fourth time at their meeting on Monday. Public health mandate #5 requires anyone onboard a vessel that is looking to enter Petersburg harbor facilities and is subject to Alaska interstate and interstate travel protocols be screened by Borough Public Health Officer Mark Tuccillo before disembarking. If any crew members or passengers...
An employee at Petersburg Medical Center has tested positive for COVID-19 and was identified through the hospital's routine asymptomatic testing protocol, according to a joint press release from PMC and the Petersburg Borough. The employee has been notified and is in isolation. PMC has switched to a red risk level of operations as a result of the confirmed case of the virus, according to the joint release. All non-emergent care patient visits have been canceled and clinic appointments will be... Full story
The Petersburg School Board reviewed a guidance document released by the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development at their school board meeting last week that lays out a framework on planning and strategies for reopening schools in the fall. The Alaska Smart Start 2020 document uses a three tiered risk/color system to allow each school district to react to the state of the COVID-19 pandemic in their municipality. The framework provided by the Alaska Smart Start 2020 document is not m...
Outdoor activities will possibly resume at Mitkof Middle School and Petersburg High School on July 13, said Activities Director Jaime Cabral at the Petersburg School Board meeting on Tuesday. School districts throughout Southeast Alaska put together a document with guidelines from the Alaska School Activities Association and the state on how activities can safely resume. While some schools throughout the region have already resumed activities, others haven't, said Cabral. The reason the Petersbu...
Salmon dominates the summer fishing headlines but it’s among many other fisheries going on throughout the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea. Alaska’s salmon season has gotten off to a mixed start, with strong catches in some regions over the past month and dismal hauls in others. Good harvests have continued at the Copper River and more recently throughout Prince William Sound. That’s not been the case at Kodiak, Cook Inlet and Chignik where fishing is off to a very slow start. Trollers are targeting Chinook salmon in Southeast, and other salmo...
WRANGELL – Wrangell Cooperative Association added its voice to the chorus of people concerned about Canadian mining concerns developing upstream of shared rivers. The forum was a hearing held by the Alaska House Fisheries Special Committee in Juneau on October 12. Testimony was collected from around the state, with speakers calling in even from as far away as Arizona. The issue at hand is a collection of large scale mines either operating or in development, located in the watersheds of the Stikine, Unuk and Taku rivers. For Wrangell, the Red C...
How much are fishermen affected by long term health problems like hearing loss, lack of sleep and high blood pressure? A pilot study aims to find out and researchers are using the 500-plus members of the Copper River salmon driftnet fleet as test subjects. “The Copper River fishing season lasts five months and most of the fleet is very digitally connected so it seemed a great fit,” said Torie Baker, a Sea Grant Marine Advisory Agent in Cordova. Baker is the point person for the project being done by the School of Public Health at the Uni...
