The Coast Guard works with the National Centers for Disease Control to monitor health and safety on cruise ships at sea. Coast Guard makes the final call on whether or not a cruise ship may stop in port if passengers are sick or contagious. But Skagway Manager Brad Ryan said that when it comes to the city’s port, the municipality will take an active role in decision making.
“Our intent is to be in the middle of it,” he said.
“We want to be at the table of these meetings because we want a say in how these are being managed.”
Skagway hosts about a million cruise ship visitors each summer. The municipality is laying the groundwork for emergency response so that visitors do not become vectors for the coronavirus disease, COVID-19. Ryan recommended that residents remain calm and educate themselves about the virus. The municipality will keep the public up to date.
“We want to make sure that everybody is aware if there’s a known coronavirus, or for that matter, any infectious disease that shows up and throws up a red alert, [so] that we can inform the community the best way to respond to that,” Ryan said.
There are no known cases of coronavirus in the Alaska, though there have been outbreaks in nearby Washington state. And there have been infected passengers on two Princess Cruise Lines ships—Princess accounts for about a quarter of the port calls in Skagway.
So the municipality is refining its emergency plans before the tourist season begins. The municipality plans to run a drill to practice response to an infectious disease outbreak. That drill will include the local Dahl Memorial Clinic.
The clinic’s Executive Director Este Fielding said the challenge to preparation in a place like Skagway is the amount of seasonal visitors and workers, paired with a significant senior population. The clinic will take things on a case by case basis.
“If people are coming through or have traveled to places of known outbreak, we would just suggest that they give us a call and then we’ll advise them as best we can and support them,” Fielding said.
If a patient presents symptoms, the clinic will call state public health officials and the CDC and follow their directions. If the need arises, the clinic is equipped to take samples for testing and isolate patients in a room that does not share air circulation with the rest of the building.
Response to any cruise ship coronavirus outbreak starts on the ship. Most ships have onboard medical facilities and round the clock access to medical professionals.
Most cruise ship visitors in Skagway and neighboring Haines step off a boat affiliated with Cruise Lines International Association, or CLIA. Those ships adopted additional screening policies. No one who has come in contact with the disease or visited Italy or China, including Hong Kong and Macau, in the two weeks prior to the cruise will be allowed to board. CLIA members will screen passengers for the virus if they traveled to a destination the CDC’s watch list prior to boarding a ship. CLIA said in a statement that it will not restrict the movement of its ships at this time.
The municipality of Haines is also developing a protocol to prepare for possible coronavirus outbreak. The municipality has plans for a preparedness exercise with the Coast Guard in April. Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
The message on Haines municipal website echoes the advice from CDC: “DON’T panic. DO wash your hands!”
The municipalities of Haines and Skagway have posted information about the virus to their websites:
https://www.hainesalaska.gov/community/covid-19-novel-coronavirus
