The main system Juneau officials have used to manage the COVID-19 pandemic is set to end at the end of April.
The Emergency Operations Center was created in March of 2020, shortly after the pandemic was declared.
Now, emergency officials have decided not to ask the Juneau Assembly for another extension of their pandemic policies. The city’s Emergency Operations Center is shutting down on April 29.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean that all of our COVID-related responses and all of our COVID-related activities will immediately go away, but some of them will,” said Deputy City Manager Robert Barr. “So our testing operations, the fire training center is a good example of one that we are demobilizing.”
The Assembly could overrule that decision, though Assembly member Michelle Hale told Bartlett Regional Hospital officials on Tuesday there is no plan to.
What that means for residents is there will be no more mandates about masking and crowd sizes. But individuals, businesses and organizations could still impose their own rules.
Local data reporting through the city’s COVID dashboard will also end.
Barr said the city does intend to continue giving out free home test kits and masks, as long as the federal government pays for them.
Coincidentally, federal funding for fighting COVID is drying up. Congress did not include COVID programs in its latest spending bill. This especially affects people who don’t have health insurance and the health care providers that rely on federal money to treat them.
As far as future COVID variants and case surges, Barr said city officials will keep monitoring for them and act accordingly.
“I think it is fair to say that COVID is here to stay, right? It’s not going anywhere, we are going to be living with it in one way or another, presumably for the rest of our lives,” he said.
He said that may mean seasonal test kit giveaways and COVID vaccine clinics, kind of like how the flu is managed.
In COVID-19 numbers, state data show 27 new cases were reported among residents and visitors to Juneau from Monday and Tuesday. That does not include results from home tests.
Bartlett Regional Hospital has 3 patients who are positive for COVID-19, with four of its health care workers are sick or quarantining.
Juneau schools are closed this week for spring break.
Juneau’s COVID-19 risk level remains at level 1, minimal.
Statewide from Monday and Tuesday, 573 new cases were reported among residents and visitors. State data also includes one death, preliminarily, over the last week.
Thirty-seven people who are positive for COVID-19 are hospitalized, including one person on a ventilator.
