Emergency Services Council holds public meeting to discuss local pandemic response

During an Emergency Services Council meeting broadcast to the public Thursday morning, as well as a noontime Kodiak Emergency Operations Center briefing, the Kodiak EOC detailed crucial information about the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the most important items that the EOC discussed, during both sessions, was the critical capacity of the Alaska hospital system broadly. The situation is so dire that patients have been sent down south for treatment, often waiting several days to get placed. Here’s EOC director Mike Twenge discussing a recent example of the shortage during the morning meeting.

“It took three days to find the hospital in the lower 48 that would accept a Kodiak patient. Several different states were called on and they said no,” Twenge said.

Amy Corder, COVID incident management commander for the Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center, said that the situation was indeed critical during the EOC briefing.

“We are experiencing delays in transfers due to current rates of hospitalization statewide. It’s important to point out that this includes transfers for any reason, not just COVID. other hospitals in Alaska, Washington and Oregon are also seeing high numbers of ICU patients, making it difficult to find a facility with an open bed for transferring any critical patient. Statewide, the average length of stay for a severe COVID illness is almost one month in the hospital. And unfortunately, we’ve seen that with the spread of the Delta variant. People with severe illness are needing more care and having worse outcomes than with previous versions of this virus. This includes the unfortunate deaths of some Kodiak residents,” Corder said.

According to the EOC and state experts, the peak of this current wave of COVID-19 infections is not expected until October.

The Emergency Services Council also discussed enacting a business capacity restriction during their meeting, but decided to table the discussion until next week.