Seven COVID cases in Nome, Unalakleet

By Peter Loewi
As cases continue to rise across the country, the White House resumed weekly COVID briefings. The briefings had stopped on April 5 when cases, hospitalizations and death rates were down across the country, but according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly half of the country lives in a community with moderate or high COVID levels. The seven-day average of new cases topped 100,000 for the fifth day in a row on Tuesday, May 24.
The reason for the increase in cases appears to be the exceptional ability of the new Omicron subvariants to evade the protection given by previous infection, even with other Omicron variants. Two pre-print papers, meaning they have yet to be peer-reviewed, out this month suggest that even if you were infected during the first Omicron wave, there is still a non-trivial chance you can be reinfected in future Omicron waves. BA2.12.1 is currently the dominant strain in the USA. The Alaska Dept. of Health and Social Services has not recently updated their variants dashboard, but as of April 10, the variant was five percent of all cases in Alaska, and rises exponentially.
“If we manage it the way that we manage it now, then most people will get infected with it at least a couple of times a year,” Kristian Andersen, a virologist at the Scripps Research Institute who was not involved in either paper told the New York Times. “The way to get it under control is not, ‘Let’s all get infected a few times a year and then hope for the best.’”
In Alaska, the regions currently with the highest case rates are Skagway, Sitka and Juneau. One potential cause of this is the return of cruise ships. Alaska Public Media, Anchorage Daily News, and KTOO have all reported on the high case rates on cruise ships in the last month. Of the 92 ships currently reporting to the CDC’s Cruise Ship Status Dashboard, 84 have case rates high enough to be under investigation. At least two are currently in or headed towards Alaskan waters, and one, the Roald Amundsen, is scheduled to dock in Nome later this summer.
On May 16, the CDC also updated their recommendations for domestic travel, saying that all travelers should “consider getting tested as close to the time of departure as possible (no more than 3 days) before your trip.” The recommendations also say to “Get tested after travel if your trip involved situations with greater risk of exposure such as being in crowded places while not wearing a well-fitting mask or respirator.”
On Monday, May 23, Pfizer released data from their trial for vaccines in children six months to five-years-old. Following ineffective results late last year, a three-dose system is 80 percent effective against symptomatic infection, said the company. An independent FDA advisory panel will meet in mid-June to decide on emergency use authorization for it and a Moderna vaccine for children 6- to 17-years-old.
The CDC’s Health Alert Network sent out an advisory on Tuesday, May 24 updating people on what they call “COVID rebound.” Following treatment of mild to moderate COVID with the drug Paxlovid, which is still being recommended, some people are experiencing symptoms again in the first week. These people can spread the virus, and should isolate for at least another five days, but the advisory notes there is currently no evidence that additional treatment is necessary.

The week in numbers:
On Tuesday, May 17, Norton Sound Health Corporation identified one new case in Nome. There were five active cases in the region, all in Nome.
On Wednesday, May 18, NSHC identified four new cases, again all in Nome. Active cases rose to eight known cases.
On Thursday, May 19, NSHC identified two more new cases, both in Nome. This made the known number of active cases in Nome rise to 10.
Over the weekend from Friday May 20 to Sunday, May 22, NSHC identified six new cases of COVID-19, all in Nome. Active cases declined over the weekend, down to five.
On Monday, May 23, NSHC identified five new cases of COVID-19. Three cases were in Nome and two were in Unalakleet.
There are currently seven active cases in the region: five in Nome and two in Unalakleet.
Since the beginning of the pandemic:
The United States of America has had 83,468,803 officially reported cases of COVID-19 and 1,002,557 associated deaths.
Alaska, which last updated their numbers on May 18, has had at least 249,522 cases, 3,762 hospitalizations, and 1,252 deaths. There are currently 44 people hospitalized due to COVID-19, the most in 10 weeks.
Nome, the Bering Strait and Norton Sound region has had at least 6,007 known cases of COVID-19, 44 hospitalizations and six deaths.