Anchorage will return to a one-month limited ‘squat’ in December



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Acting Anchorage Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson on Wednesday ordered the city to return to a modified “hunker-down” state until December, imposing the most widespread economic shutdown the city has seen since former mayor Ethan Berkowitz’s initial shelter-in-place decision. in March.

Beginning at 8 a.m. on Tuesday and through January 1, bars and restaurants will end internal services and will be limited to take-out, delivery and al fresco dining only. Retail and other public enterprises, including gymnasiums and salons, will be limited to 25% of their capacity, and retail businesses must be able to keep people from different household groups at least 6 feet away. Personal care services can no longer provide services such as beard trimming or facials that require a person to temporarily remove a mask.

Theaters, bingo halls and other indoor entertainment facilities will remain closed.

Quinn-Davidson said at a community briefing that since taking over as acting mayor in October, the Anchorage Health Department has warned that a withdrawal decision may be needed to reduce rates of transmission. She said she had done all she could to slow the virus while keeping businesses open, but the situation turned dire.

“The number of cases continued to break records and our public health team lost its ability to keep pace,” Quinn-Davidson said.

Quinn-Davidson was backed by public health experts supporting the new order.

Dr Megan Clancy, an infectious disease specialist who works at the Alaska Regional Hospital and Providence Alaska Medical Center, said more patients are coming to hospitals and they are getting sicker and staying longer.

“Please take the chance to save a life, to prevent one of your loved ones from getting sick,” Clancy said. “Please wear your masks. We beg you. We are drowning and we need your help. “

The news was not well received by Alaska’s largest hotel trade group. Sarah Oates, president and CEO of the Alaska Cabaret, Hotel, Restaurant and Retailers Association, said in an email that she was “devastated and furious” to learn of the new emergency order on Wednesday morning.

Oates said the industry was facing “irreparable devastation” and said it had provided Quinn-Davidson with several alternatives to shutting down the hospitality industry. Closing bars and restaurants, where staff can sanitize surfaces, patrolling distance between groups and capacity levels, will only push people further to unregulated gatherings in private homes where masks are not not worn, she said.

Restaurant and bar owners contacted by the Daily News on Wednesday said they were frustrated with the closure and concerned for the well-being of their employees, many of whom will now lose their jobs or see working hours reduced, just before the holidays.

“Honestly, we’re just upset,” said Robert Kilby, co-owner of 907 Alehouse.

Quinn-Davidson said she understands the hospitality industry is being heavily targeted by COVID-19 restrictions because bars and restaurants are by nature where you meet indoors and don’t wear clothes. masks. To help mitigate the economic fallout, she called on the Anchorage Assembly to reallocate the remaining $ 15 million unspent in federal COVID-19 relief funds to go to rent relief and mortgage grants for the hospitality industry.

She also said she plans to meet with the three members of Congress from Alaska to urge them to work to pass a new relief bill, which is stuck in a partisan deadlock.

“I call on our congressional delegation to put politics aside and go through another round of economic stimulus,” she said. “There is no legitimate reason why they didn’t.”

Under the new ordinance, everyone in the municipality “must limit outings and physical contact with people outside their home”. Indoor gatherings will be limited to six people and outdoor gatherings limited to 10, with masks and social distancing required at all gatherings. Specific exceptions apply to drive-in events, political or religious gatherings, and daycare centers.

People should work from home if possible and avoid physical entry into interior spaces outside of their homes as much as possible. Indoor sports competitions against other teams are also prohibited, but the practice is acceptable as long as players can stay 10 feet apart.

The closures are expected to remain in effect for a month, expiring on January 1 without further action.

In Anchorage, COVID-19 cases are reaching new highs every week and on Tuesday Alaska set a record with 13 new coronavirus deaths reported. With hospitals under strain statewide, healthcare workers fear the worst is yet to come as cases escalate, as those who test positive can take weeks to get sick enough to survive. be hospitalized.

The city’s contact tracing resources have been depleted for weeks, limiting the ability to contain the spread and slow transmission of the virus between people. Many of those who test positive are not even contacted by health officials when they are infectious, Anchorage Department of Health Director Heather Harris said.

Anchorage’s R0, which is the average number of people a person transmits COVID-19 to, stands at 1.15. An R0 greater than 1.0 means that the number of cases is increasing. If the municipality can do enough to limit the spread, Anchorage can reduce that number, avoiding worst-case scenarios at its hospitals, said Dr. Tom Hennessy, infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Alaska at Anchorage.

Several doctors attending the meeting spoke of the serious situation in the city’s hospitals as well as their concern over the increasing number of cases.

Dr Robert Onders, acting administrator of the Alaska Native Medical Center, said Alaskan natives had higher rates of hospitalization, ICU admissions and deaths from COVID-19. The Alaska Native Medical Center opened another care site and began postponing some elective surgeries to free up bed space, Onders said.

Quinn-Davidson said on Wednesday that last week she spoke with her team about issuing a new emergency order, but thought they might wait a little longer to see if the numbers could drop after they pleaded with the public to avoid gatherings and tighten the mandate mask. But the numbers haven’t come down.

“We just can’t wait, so we have to do it today,” she said.

As elsewhere in the United States, the response to the pandemic has deeply divided the people of Alaska. Some resign themselves to the restrictions imposed by the government and argue that they are unfairly choosing small businesses, in turn crushing the economy. Others are asking for more warrants to contain the virus, including a statewide mask order from the governor who has so far refused to issue such a warrant, instead relying on governments local.

A series of surveys in October showed that 87% of Anchorage residents who responded wear masks most or all of the time they are away from home, wrote a group of researchers from the University of ‘Alaska in Anchorage. And, 62% of people who responded to the survey said they were in favor of a modified descent order.

Former mayor Berkowitz previously instituted a four-week “reset” in August during a smaller spike in cases that closed various establishments to catering inside. The August Orders saw a series of contentious legal battles between the city and some restaurants that chose to challenge orders and serve food inside.

The reset drew strong opposition, including a charged clash with protesters outside a midnight Assembly meeting, which Quinn-Davidson witnessed. Quinn-Davidson said she had focused on public health in making the decision, not the animosity it might spark.

“I did not consider this opposition,” she said. “My job in this role is to protect public health and prevent unnecessary deaths, and that’s what I’m doing by issuing this order.”

Journalist Emily Goodykoontz contributed.

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