Sorted by date Results 101 - 125 of 150
The Canadian government issued an order on Feb. 4 to prohibit cruise ships in all Canadian waters until Feb. 28, 2022, but Dave Berg, cofounder of Viking Travel, said the restriction would only affect one cruise line expected to port in Petersburg this summer. Victory Cruise Lines' foreign-flagged ship Ocean Victory is scheduled to port in Petersburg eight times this season, with the first stop expected on July 17. According to the Jones Act, which regulates maritime commerce in the United...
Alaska's disaster declaration, which was used to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, expired on Sunday after the state legislature and Gov. Mike Dunleavy failed to extend the declaration. Petersburg's Emergency Operations Center Incident Commander Karl Hagerman said some local health mandates are unaffected, but other local mandates are suspended until the Borough Assembly can update them on Monday. With the absence of a disaster declaration, Dunleavy issued four health advisories on Feb. 14...
Petersburg Medical Center administered a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on Feb. 11 to residents who received their first dose on Jan. 14, said PMC Director of Nursing Jennifer Bryner at the COVID-19 community update on Feb. 12. About 350 residents received their second dose of the vaccine on Feb. 11. An additional 50 doses were also administered to first time receivers during the vaccine clinic, said Bryner. Those that received their first dose on Feb. 11 will get their second shot on...
He was my hero To the Editor: I was saddened to hear about the passing of Jonas Hollingstad and wanted to tell his family that he was the most important person in my life. In 1945 when I was seven years old I fell off the float in Scow Bay. Could not swim, no life preserver and current was taking me down and out into the Narrows. Had not Jonas been walking by at that moment there is no question that I would have drowned. He got me out of the water and up on the dock where he told me years later the first thing I said was, “Don’t tell my Dad...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) _ Alaska lawmakers, facing a looming deadline and disorganization in the House, have asked Gov. Mike Dunleavy to issue a new disaster declaration to aid the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic despite legal questions surrounding his authority to act. Dunleavy is "evaluating the options and will make an announcement soon," Jeff Turner, a spokesperson for the governor, said by email. In a statement late Friday, Dunleavy said in the absence of a declaration, "my...
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
Today (Feb. 11) will be a significant day for hundreds of Petersburg residents who head to the community gym for the second dose of Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine. Yet others received their first dose of the vaccine last week. Petersburg is taking yet another step towards a more normal life which we expect could bring an end to mandates, masks and the endless arguments being made in opposition to the health mandates that have clearly enabled Petersburg to minimize infections that have largely been...
Petersburg Incident Commander Karl Hagerman apologized at the COVID-19 community update on Friday for the borough's use of the CodeRED system on Jan. 29 that encouraged residents to put their names on Petersburg Medical Center's waitlist to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. "There was some concern that the system shouldn't have been used for that," said Hagerman. "We're listening to that. A lot of that had to do with the text of the message. We wanted people to sit up and take notice, but I think...
On Jan 29 the EOC used the CodeRED system to encourage residents who are interested in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine to sign up on the Petersburg Medical Center's waiting list. "Coordinating the vaccine implementation is one of the most important things we can do to beat the virus and getting the word out to make this happen is critical," according to the Borough's website statement. The use of the CodeRed system in this case, was wrong. Use of this emergency notification tool last Friday was...
Cruise ships are expected to make 85 port calls in Petersburg between May 11 and Sept. 18, according to the current 2021 Petersburg cruise ship schedule. Following the cancelled ports of call in Petersburg and Alaska last year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dave Berg said tourists are eager to make their way back up to America's Last Frontier. "We're getting lots of calls from people who want to visit Alaska on ferries or with tours," said Berg, who cofounded Viking Travel. "The number...
PMC Director of Nursing Jennifer Bryner said at the Jan. 29 COVID-19 community update the state has allocated 150 doses for the month, but PMC will also receive doses from the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium. She also confirmed the day of the next community COVID-19 vaccine clinic, which will take place on Feb. 5 at the Parks and Recreation community gym. The upcoming vaccine clinic will focus on residents 65 years old and older, but Bryner encouraged anyone who wants to be vaccinate...
Petersburg Medical Center is setting Feb. 5 as a tentative date to hold another COVID-19 vaccination clinic, according to Petersburg Medical Center Director of Nursing Jennifer Bryner at the COVID-19 community update on Jan. 22. She said the facility will be notified by the state in the last week of January as to when they can expect their next allocation of the vaccine. The hospital will then vaccinate residents who received their first COVID-19 shot this month for a second and final time on Fe...
At the COVID community update on Jan. 22, Incident Commander Karl Hagerman told the public that the local COVID-19 active case count had finally returned to zero. Additionally, there haven't been any new cases of the virus reported within the last seven days. "We had a rough patch in the past week and a half or so with an increase in cases," said Hagerman on Jan. 22. "It's very nice to be back at zero." Petersburg Medical Center has collected a total of 8,055 test samples as of Friday to be...
Since the Borough Assembly passed the masking mandate at their Nov. 16 meeting, the Petersburg Police Department has been focused on educating the community about the mandate, instead of writing tickets, said Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht. Only one resident, Assembly Member Jeff Meucci, has received an official warning, said Giesbrecht. Other residents who were seen by police officers were spoken to, but the conversations didn't reach the point where the individual was cited or officially...
Mayor Mark Jensen participated in a phone call with Gov. Mike Dunleavy's office and other mayors in Southeast Alaska on Jan. 7 where he had the opportunity to address concerns regarding the state's budget and how it will impact Petersburg, he told the Borough Assembly at their meeting on Jan. 19. Among the challenges faced by the borough that Jensen spoke about were a 13 percent drop in the Community Assistance payment for Petersburg in the current fiscal year to $301,090; the Community Jail...
Petersburg Medical Center vaccinated about 350 residents ages 65 and older during the COVID-19 vaccine drive on Jan. 14 at the Petersburg School District community gym, according to PMC Director of Nursing Jennifer Bryner at the COVID-19 community update on Jan. 15. "It felt really great immunizing so many people in our community and getting that first step to having a safer community and decreasing the risk for people to become ill and hospitalized or worse with COVID," said Bryner. Coupled wit...
Rollercoaster of emotions To the Editor: Last week was one of many different emotions for me. First was the excitement I felt after a phone call where I was directed to show up at 11:50 for a vaccine which I thought was at least several more weeks away. But "don't come before 11:45." Hmmm, okay. Upon arriving and seeing the very full parking lot I defaulted to my skeptical self, "This should be fun." Bam, was I surprised. I was transported back to scenes from boot camp but without the yelling an...
We applaud the work of the entire Petersburg Medical Center staff and everyone that worked with them to get over 350 COVID vaccinations into the arms of residents last Thursday. The vaccination effort was a seamless, speedy and efficient undertaking that should be copied by any community providing mass vaccination clinics for their citizens. No doubt the process will become even more streamlined as additional vaccine doses are delivered and administered in the coming months. This is proof once...
PMC Director of Nursing Jennifer Bryner said at the COVID-19 community update on Jan. 8 that PMC is expecting to have a combined total of about 300 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine to begin vaccinating residents 65 years and older this week. She said most of the local residents who received the vaccine last month have already been vaccinated for the second and final time. According to the Petersburg Emergency Operations Center, 219 vaccines have been administered locally as of Wednesday,...
Petersburg Medical Center has administered about 150 COVID-19 vaccines as of Dec. 31 to local residents as the town and state move through the early stages of the vaccine distribution process, according to a joint press release between the Petersburg Borough and PMC. The vaccine has been made available to residents and staff at both PMC Long Term Care facility and Mountain View Manor Assisted Living, according to the joint press release. Critical frontline healthcare works, including EMS, have...
Petersburg Medical Center received 220 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday and has since begun vaccinating those who are most at risk, according to local health officials at the COVID-19 community update on Dec. 18. The vaccinations arrived on the afternoon jet from a cold storage facility in Anchorage, and almost immediately afterwards, PMC staff set to work. Mamie Nilsen, a registered nurse in the hospital's long term care facility, was the first person in Petersburg to receive th...
WRANGELL - Dr. Anne Zink, Alaska's chief medical officer, called in to a special meeting of the Wrangell Borough Assembly last Friday afternoon, Dec. 18, to give a brief update on the COVID-19 situation across the state. In her update she said that she is "cautiously optimistic" about the future, with vaccinations being rolled out and a slowdown in rising case numbers. "Across the state, as a whole, we're starting to see a tentative decline in the acceleration, which has been fantastic," she...
Cite reports and references To the Editor: After reading Marc's letter, I have some questions. First, "... 99% of which are most likely over Age 75+ with serious other health problems." Please cite your reference for this statistic. Do you realize that when folks use a percentage in an argument, 97.3% of the time it was just made up? Second, "You can find just as many experts that will tell you masks, social distancing and this upcoming vaccine is wishful thinking." I cannot find them. Please ci...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska has begun receiving its initial doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, state officials announced Monday. Some hospitals had received vaccine Monday, and it was expected some Alaskans would be vaccinated as early as Monday, said Tessa Walker Linderman, co-lead of Alaska’s Vaccine Task Force. She said hospitals could decide whether to publicize the doses they are receiving. A vaccine shipment arrived Sunday night on a UPS plane, the state health department said in a statement. The state’s chief medical officer, Dr. Anne...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Coronavirus vaccinations reached the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage as the rollout spread across the state. Front-line medical workers at the center waited Tuesday to receive their first shot and get instructions on when to return for a second injection as part of the two-step process. “I’ve been looking forward to this,” Dr. David Zielke, a pulmonary critical care physician at the medical center, said before Emily Schubert, the employee health nurse, administered his shot. Zielke said he’s read the safet...
