Fort Greely reduced its level of COVID-19 precautions today, because of fewer cases of COVID there and in the surrounding community and the ramping-up of vaccinations. Greely follows Eielson Air Force Base, which lowered its health-protection condition level on Monday. Fort Wainwright plans to do the same later this week.
All of the Interior’s military installations elevated their COVID-19 health protection condition, or HPCon, late last year, when the number of covid cases was on the rise. But now that those numbers are falling, the installations are reverting from HPCon level Charlie to HPCon Bravo.
“There has been a significant drop in COVID-19 cases in the Fort Greely and Delta Junction area, showing that our safety/mitigation efforts are proving to be successful,” Fort Greely spokesperson Angela Glass said Tuesday.
Glass says the change doesn’t affect the post’s access policy, which remains restricted to people who work or live on post or have official business there.
“The standards and the policies that we have in place are not changing at this time,” she said.
That’s basically what’s happened at Eielson, although base officials said in a statement posted on social media that the change in health-protection level has allowed loosening of some restrictions, like the reopening of more on-base dining facilities.
A Fort Wainwright spokesperson said Monday that officials at that post plan to revert back to HPCon Bravo later this week. But they’re still working on the details of how to carry that out.
Glass says despite the change at Fort Greely, officials there will continue to require basic precautions until more of the area’s population gets the covid vaccination and its effectiveness is confirmed.
“Masks and physical distancing will still be necessary, even after vaccination, until a large proportion of our population is immunized, and the vaccine is proven to provide long-term protection,” she said.
Information on each installation’s COVID-19 health-protection level is available on their homepages and social-media sites.
