Alaska’s count of confirmed COVID-19 cases jumped to 59 Wednesday.
One new case is attributed to Homer.
But not really Homer. According to Dan Nelson, director of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Office of Emergency Management, CDC reporting regulations count a person’s community of residence, not where they are tested or being treated.
Nelson says the Homer case was attributed to travel from the Lower 48. They were diagnosed upon arrival in Anchorage and are isolated in the Anchorage area. They did not travel to Homer since coming back to the state.
“So, I want to make that clear to folks that we do, if you look on our statistics, we do officially have a case in Homer. However, that person was not actually down in the Kenai Peninsula,” Nelson said.
It’s a similar caveat to Alaska’s first death from COVID-19. Pete Erickson Sr., of Petersburg, died March 16 after testing positive for the virus. He was 76. Erickson had been in Washington State since late February for treatment of other serious health problems. He died in a Seattle hospital. Still, Erickson’s death is counted to Alaska’s total.
Of the Kenai Peninsula cases, the case in Seward and the one in Soldotna have been determined to be travel-related. The two in Sterling are counted as having come in close contact with someone who tested positive. The Kenai Peninsula Borough also announced Wednesday that an employee in the Solid Waste Department has been tested and is awaiting results. Nelson says the borough does not believe there was any public exposure from the individual.
Borough Information Officer Brenda Ahlberg says information is only being released because solid waste is an essential department.
“That's very important to let folks know that we are not going to be announcing cases or possible exposures throughout our borough facilities,” she said. “We want to respect our employees’ privacy. But there will come times, such as this, with critical services that we want to reassure the public that we are doing our due diligence and informing them as appropriate.”
Nelson and Ahlberg give a Kenai Peninsula update at 7 p.m. every night on KPB Alerts and the Office of Emergency Management posts regular updates at kpboem.com.
