COVID-19

A big component of Alaska’s Number One vaccination status is Tribal Health Corporations. In the Interior, Tanana Chiefs Conference provides health care for 42 villages across the region. After weeks of successful vaccine distribution to the villages, TCC is now trying to reach people who live in Fairbanks, including FNSBSD teachers and school staff.

Friday is the deadline for a relief program that could pay up to a year’s worth of rent and utilities for renters impacted by the pandemic. The state received more than 200 million dollars to prevent folks from being evicted.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy has tested positive for COVID-19 and has mild symptoms, his office said Wednesday. He tested negative on Sunday, a day after being exposed to a person with a positive case. He said then he would quarantine at home, but began feeling sick Tuesday night, and took another test Wednesday morning and it was positive, his office said.

Dunleavy is being treated by his own doctor.

He was waiting his turn to get the COVID-19 vaccine; he 59 and too young to get vaccinated as an elder. He had surgery in 2017 for a mild heart condition that might make him eligible under some criteria, but not until he tests negative again for the disease.

His office said yesterday the governor has mild symptoms that emerged while he was in quarantine, so no other close contacts have been identified.

The Covid 19 pandemic has changed all our lives, and for parents the impacts are uniquely trying. The KUAC series Pandemic Parenting, looks at that experience through the eyes of local people. In episode one, reporter Molly Rettig shares the story of a Fairbanks Memorial Hospital surgeon and how the pandemic has affected her work and home life.

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.

The leaders of both the Fairbanks Education Association and the Education Support Staff Association are asking the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District to upgrade their employment contracts in the area of workplace safety. Each group is asking the school board at a special meeting tonight, Monday, January 11, to address the risks of children returning to school during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Three small school districts around the Interior plan to bring students back into the classroom next week, as long as the number of COVID-19 cases in the districts remains low.