Starting Monday, May 2, COVID-19 drive-thru testing will be available on the Bartlett Regional Hospital campus for individuals who need a COVID-19 test as a pre-procedure requirement. Limited appointments will be available for these individuals Monday, Tuesday, and Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Wednesday and Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Testing for the general public will be available starting the week of May 8; hours of operation to be determined.

Bartlett Regional Hospital previously announced it would be assuming operations over the City and Borough of Juneau’s current COVID-19 hotline and drive-thru testing facility.

Individuals who need a COVID-19 molecular test must register for an appointment. The registration process remains the same – individuals are encouraged to self-register online or call the testing hotline if they need assistance. Calls to the testing hotline will be returned the same day when received between 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Drive-thru testing will be conducted on the Bartlett campus (3260 Hospital Drive) across from the Emergency Department (ED) entrance. Individuals arriving for an appointment should proceed towards the ED and follow the road signage. Test collection will occur from the vehicle; individuals do not need to enter the hospital. Please be advised that road construction is currently happening on campus and individuals are asked to drive slowly and follow traffic control signs.

A follow-up information release will be issued before May 8 announcing the general hours of operation.

As a reminder:

• The COVID-19 hotline phone number (907-586-6000) will remain the same and will now be referred to as the ‘Juneau COVID-19 Testing Hotline.’
• The testing hotline will be limited to scheduling a COVID-19 test. Callers will be directed to existing external resources for all other COVID-19 inquiries.
• COVID-19 PCR tests will continue to be analyzed at Bartlett Regional Hospital with results available within 24 hours.
• Free COVID-19 antigen home tests are available at the City Hall cash office, all Juneau Public Libraries, Juneau Public Health Center, and the Juneau Police Department while supplies last.

For more information, contact Community Relations Director Erin Hardin at 907-796-8567 or [email protected].

Masks are optional for most individuals while indoors in Juneau School District facilities and on school buses. The Board of Education met in a Special Meeting Tuesday night to discuss the JSD Mask Policy. Board members reviewed the current policy, took public input, and made revisions. The following Mask Policy was unanimously approved:

Masks, or similar facial coverings designed to mitigate COVID-19 transmission and are well-fitted covering the mouth and nose, are optional for all persons indoors in Juneau School District facilities. The Superintendent has the authority to require face masks in certain situations, including but not limited to:

• People in contact with another person identified as “high risk” for severe disease shall wear a mask when indoors with that/those individual(s).
• People with exposure to someone with COVID-19 (i.e., close contacts) shall wear a mask per current CDC guidelines applicable for K-12 settings.

If masking is required in school settings, it will generally be implemented from individual close contacts to programs, to classrooms, to building-level based on circumstances.

This past Saturday, April 23, the school district implemented a mask requirement due to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changing Juneau’s Alert Level to High. At the time, JSD’s Mask Policy hinged on CDC’s community level. Juneau officials now know this tool doesn’t align with what’s happening locally, specifically when it comes to hospitalizations. CDC’s hospitalization metrics are calculated by aggregating boroughs/census areas into “Health Service Areas.” A large section of Southeast – including Yakutat, Skagway, Haines, Hoonah, Angoon, Juneau, and Sitka – are all part of Juneau’s Health Service Area. Data from all hospitals in a Health Service Area are added together to calculate the hospitalization metric. COVID-19 hospitalizations in communities outside Juneau caused Juneau’s overall community level to switch to High. CBJ still considers the local community health risk from COVID-19 to be minimal.

As a reminder, people may choose to mask indoors in JSD facilities, on school buses or outdoors on school district grounds at any time. It is an individual decision that students, staff members and visitors are free to make without judgment. Parents who wish their child to wear a mask should communicate directly with their child about the expectation.

As a reminder, April 30 will be the last day the City and Borough of Juneau runs the COVID-19 hotline and the drive-thru testing facility at the Hagevig Fire Training Center. After that, Bartlett Regional Hospital will take over operations of both in early May. In the coming days, visit Bartlett’s COVID-19 webpage for more information, including hours of operation and the drive-thru testing location on campus.

The Juneau community can expect other aspects surrounding the COVID-19 testing process to remain the same: the hotline number will still be 907-586-6000; to schedule a test, register online or call the hotline; and tests will continue to be analyzed at Bartlett with results available within 24 hours.

CBJ stood up the Emergency Operations Center in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and implemented the drive-thru testing site and the hotline. While COVID-19 transmission continues to occur in Juneau, hospitalization rates are low, vaccines are widely available, and treatments are available. With COVID-19 no longer an emergent situation, CBJ is ending its Emergency Operations Center framework. Aside from the drive-thru testing and hotline transitioning to Bartlett, the public can expect to see these other changes after April 30:

• CBJ will no longer implement COVID-19 Risk Metrics and Mitigations Strategies, though the community can continue to reach out to CBJ for best practices.
• CBJ will no longer maintain its COVID-19 Dashboard. Instead, the community can get data from the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services through its Cases Dashboard (which is updated every Wednesday) and Weekly COVID-19 Updates (subscribe here).
• CBJ will no longer be issuing Emergency Operations Center updates.

CBJ will continue to maintain the webpage juneau.org/vaccine, which is an easy way to make a COVID-19 vaccine appointment at the Juneau Public Health Center and other local providers. CBJ is currently distributing free COVID-19 antigen home tests and KN95 masks from the City Hall cash office, all Juneau Public Libraries, Juneau Public Health Center, and Juneau Police Department – and will continue to as long as supply is available.

For more information, contact Emergency Operations Center Planning Section Chief Denise Koch at [email protected] or 907-586-0800 ext. 4182.