CBJ reports nine new cases of COVID-19 in Juneau

The City and Borough of Juneau Emergency Operations Center is reporting nine new Juneau residents with COVID-19 since Friday afternoon. Seven of these cases came in Friday evening and two over the weekend. Public Health is attributing six of the cases to community spread, including four associated with bar activity; one to secondary transmission; and two cases are under investigation.

Currently, 25 cases from the past few weeks are linked to a social gathering that took place at the end of August and is what led CBJ and Public Health to recommend testing to individuals who’ve recently socialized at a bar. The 25 cases include positive cases of guests that were at the social event, secondary spread to family members, and COVID-19 positive individuals that have no known connection to an infected person but have recently socialized at a bar. To meet demand for the testing recommendation, CBJ stood up a temporary testing facility at Centennial Hall this past weekend, September 11-13, and conducted 678 tests. In total, 935 tests have been done based on the recommendation. Samples were sent to the State of Alaska Public Health Laboratory in Fairbanks. CBJ is likely to report any positive cases from this testing effort starting tomorrow.

Cumulatively, Juneau has had 239 residents test positive for COVID-19 since March and 98 nonresidents. Combined, there are 35 active cases in Juneau and 301 individuals have recovered. All individuals with active cases of COVID-19 are in isolation. There are currently three people with COVID-19 hospitalized at Bartlett Regional Hospital.

Statewide, the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services reports 77 new people with COVID-19 – 75 are residents and two are nonresidents. Alaska has had 6,353 cumulative resident cases of COVID-19 and a total of 917 nonresidents.