The Haines Borough Administration building. (Emily Files)
Haines officials announced earlier this month that its Emergency Operations Center would be deactivated this week. It was created at the start of the pandemic to coordinate the COVID-19 response locally, now officials say Haines is no longer in a state of emergency and management of recovery efforts will move to the borough. KHNS’ Corinne Smith reports.
The emergency operations center, or EOC was activated on March 6, 2020 as a coordination agency for Haines officials to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost two years to the day, Haines Mayor Douglas Olerud says borough leadership met and a decision was made to disband it.
“The EOC had a meeting a week ago,” Olerud said. “Carolann Wooten, the EOC commander called us all together just trying to figure out what the role for the EOC should be going forward. And it was a consensus of the group that we should probably be deactivating and handing over that role back to the borough, who felt there was no longer an emergency crisis.”
EOC Commander Carolann Wooten wrote a memo to the assembly announcing the change last week (see Assembly packet page 235 here). Olerud says the criteria have been met:
“So right now, there’s a high vaccination rate of over 70% in Haines, of the eligible population that are fully vaccinated. Testing supplies and masks are readily available in multiple areas to the community. The school, the borough admin, and SEARHC (Clinic) are also offering home antigen (COVID) tests and clinical testing as needed…We just felt that it was time to stand down and that if there is something where that comes up, if there’s another spike, we can reactivate immediately,” he said.
Olerud says the EOC has served as a coordination and public information hub throughout the pandemic. Most recently, it obtained rapid tests and KN95 masks for the community and assisted the school district with its mitigation efforts, including ordering supplies like tests and personal protective equipment. Olerud says that support for the school district would continue.
“Those conversations are going to be taking place through the borough administration and the schools and SEARHC (Clinic) instead of the EOC going forward,” Olerud said.
The Haines school district announced it will make masking optional, starting Monday . Administrators cited lower case counts and state authorities clearing Haines of community transmission. That means most recent cases identified have been traced to where the source of transmission is known.
As of Monday afternoon, the state dashboard reported 11 COVID cases over the last week in the Haines Borough, totaling 592 cases. Borough and health officials say those numbers are delayed and are not the most accurate picture of local transmission. According to state data, Haines saw its largest COVID surge with the omicron wave, with at least 350 positive cases since Jan 1, or an estimated 20%t of the population contracting the virus. There have been no reported hospitalizations and no recent deaths.
A representative with the regional health consortium cited lowering demand for COVID tests at the clinic signaling a drop in cases in Haines. Will Race with the Juneau-based public relations firm, Cedar Group, said the clinic administered an average of 250 tests per week in January, about 138 tests in mid February, and just 30 tests in the first week of March. SEARHC declined to release Haines’ positivity rate.
Olerud says even as the recent surge of COVID’s omicron variant has begun to subside across the country and Southeast Alaska, Haines still faces uncertainty and mitigation efforts will continue as needed. He says they consulted with local and state health authorities in the decision to deactivate the EOC.
“You always look to the people in the health profession when you’re dealing with a health emergency. And so getting the information from the state public health office, talking to SEARHC, seeing where they’re at, with their staffing, what they were seeing, as far as transmission rates, and things. They did not have an issue with us backing off, they thought there’s a lot of other communities in Southeast (Alaska) that have already deactivated their emergency operation centers. And so that gave us a level of comfort moving forward that this was the right decision for Haines.”
Olerud says the Haines Assembly will have the opportunity to discuss and weigh in on the deactivation of the EOC at its Tuesday meeting. If there is no opposition action taken, the emergency operations center would be immediately disbanded .
