On Wednesday, the Mat-Su Borough held its weekly press conference on the status of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Valley. As with previous meetings, fewer than ten people were in the room at any given time. One new factor this week is that all of the speakers were slightly muffled by facemasks.
According to Wednesday’s update from the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, there are five cases of COVID-19 in the Mat-Su. Four of those cases are in Palmer, and one is in Wasilla.
Around the state and nation, the number of cases has been rising significantly in recent days. Some have questioned whether the low numbers for the borough are due to a lack of testing. Dr. Wade Erickson is the founder of Capstone Clinic, which is one of the testing facilities in the borough. He believes the low case count is not due to a lack of tests.
“I actually don’t believe that that’s truly the issue. We know that COVID creates about a 15% hospital admission rate for the number of patients that are tested. And currently, the hospital does not have any positive cases and has not had any positive cases to date. Therefore, we know that there’s not a high disease burden in our borough, and thank God for that.”
Dr. Erickson says Capstone Clinic has conducted around 200 tests for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19 with two positive results.
In addition to potential direct health impacts, the Northern Susitna Valley is bracing for a lean summer. At Wednesday’s press conference, Mat-Su Convention and Visitor Bureau Executive Director Bonnie Quill through a list of closures and cancelations from tour companies that went on for nearly two minutes. Quill says before COVID-19, local businesses were reporting an upswing in bookings. Now, cancelations are the norm. She says Mat-Su CVB is looking ahead to helping the Valley’s tourism industry recover.
“We know that recovery will start with locals. There will be a big pent up demand for people to take a trip, especially a short distance from home, with friends and family. Mat-Su CVB has been in conversations with our partners, Visit Anchorage and Explore Fairbanks on a possible cooperative campaign that would have a stronger message partnering together”
Borough Manager John Moosey said near the end of Wednesday’s press conference that the borough will continue to have public statements each Wednesday at 11:00 am unless urgent news arises.
