Transmission electron microscopic image of an isolate from the first U.S. case of COVID-19, formerly known as 2019-nCoV. (CDC/ Hannah A Bullock; Azaibi Tamin)
The Haines Emergency Operations Center announced another asymptomatic case of the coronavirus on Wednesday. According to the borough press release the male patient is between the ages of 20 and 29.
“It appears that the asymptomatic testing program is working exactly as it was designed to work,” said Borough Clerk Alekka Fullerton.
The Haines Borough recommended that any travelers arriving in town should be tested for COVID-19. Fullerton said this could be a travel related case, but that distinction will be made later by the state Department of Epidemiology. She said it is also possible the person was tested at the request of an employer.
State public health nurse Elaine Hickey said contact tracing was easy for this case because there weren’t any contacts.
“So, the person has been following guidelines that was put out for them and there is no close contacts that we are concerned about at this time,” she said.
Hickey said the male patient is self isolating in Haines. He is the only active resident case of COVID-19—the previous asymptomatic case was recently cleared and is no longer considered an active case. There are still three active non-resident cases in the borough. Those individuals are all in isolation at the OBI Seafood salmon processing plant at Excursion Inlet.
The Haines Borough Assembly will put an additional $100,000 towards testing for asymptomatic people. The borough is developing an agreement with local health provider Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium to develop that program. It will be discussed at the next Government Affairs and Services committee meeting on July 7th.
