COVID-19 case rates looking better, free take home tests arriving in Kodiak soon

Health officials say it’s too early to be certain, but they’re seeing the same trend – local COVID-19 test positivity has dropped this week. As of a week ago, 30% of COVID tests were coming back positive. That number has dropped to 25%. Shana Theobald is a doctor at the Kodiak Island Ambulatory Care Clinic.

“It does seem to be plateauing. I hope that’s real. And not just a pause with the holiday weekend. We’re kind of at a steady state right now, maybe with a little bit of decrease,” Theobald said.

That wasn’t the only good news regarding COVID in Kodiak this week; active cases have also fallen since the last Emergency Operations Center update last Friday. Wednesday the EOC reported a total active case count of 571. That’s substantially lower than Friday’s all-time high of 834 active cases.

Kodiak clinics are testing about 300 people per day. Testing clinics on the island say they are not experiencing shortages of tests, and they’re able to see patients faster than in past weeks. Turnover time for test results is typically the same-day.

Testing in Kodiak is about to get a significant boost. The Biden administration has made at-home test kits available to every US household. The first of those kits are expected to arrive within days.

Ashley Frost is the lab director for the Kodiak Area Native Association.

“I’m hoping it might reduce some of the burden that we’re feeling for the desire for everybody to get tested. It’s nice to be able to provide those resources to the community. However, sometimes, when we’re doing 200 tests a day… we’ve got seven dedicated employees at KANA and it’s a lot to do,” Frost said.

Kodiak residents can order up to four tests per household at covidtests.gov.