Kodiak COVID Count 118: A dozen new cases reported in one day

Kodiak is seeing another spike in COVID-19 cases, with a dozen new positive tests reported on Wednesday.

Since Friday, there have been a total of 20 new cases. All of them involve Kodiak residents.

The Kodiak Area Emergency Services Organization says eleven of those are close contacts of people in cases previously reported. One is travel related.

Currently, there are twenty cases classified as active. The city remains at the green, or low-level risk status.

Kodiak City Manager Mike Tvenge says the Emergency Operations Center will meet Thursday morning to discuss raising the threat level to yellow, or medium risk.

Earlier this week, the city reported that one of its employees had contracted the virus — but since then, Tvenge says no other city staffers have tested positive.

In an email to KMXT this morning, Tvenge urged the community to take every precaution to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

He said, “We must control the community saturation level, or health care and contact tracing will be overwhelmed.”

“We are a resilient community,” Tvenge said, “And together we can keep one another healthy. Be respectful of others. Wear a mask.”

The total number of cases on Kodiak Island, since the first outbreak of COVID-19 was reported in April, is now at 118.

In the last week, Kodiak has seen the second largest cluster of cases since OBI Seafoods reported 37 cases at its Alitak processing plant in August, in which 26 cases were reported in a single day.

The third largest outbreak involved 14 cases this fall at the Kodiak Coast Guard base.

Here’s the press release from the Kodiak Area Emergency Services organization: 

20201028 Positive Test Announcement – Case 107-118