3 COVID-19 cases reported among Dunleavy administration

This story has been updated to include new city and state data.

Three COVID-19 cases were reported among employees of the governor and Lt. Governor’s offices this week, according to Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s office. There were no new cases to report on Thursday, a spokesperson for the governor said.

[Update: City’s latest case cluster expands]

According to a statement from Dunleavy spokesperson Jeff Turner, a staffer, who the governor’s office did not identify, in the governor’s Anchorage office sought testing after feeling ill last weekend. That employee tested positive for COVID-19, and on Tuesday, Anchorage-based staff were given rapid tests. Two came back positive, the statement said.

“The Governor’s office is implementing the standard protocols to prevent further cases and is allowing staff members who are able to do so to telework for the next several days,” the statement said. “Gov. Dunleavy and Lt. Gov. Meyer were also tested and both tests came back negative for COVID-19.”

City and state numbers

Juneau’s COVID-19 cluster connected to housing-insecure people grew again on Thursday.

City and Borough of Juneau Emergency Operations Center reported 12 new COVID-19 cases —five from Wednesday and seven from Thursday —with four cases connected to the city’s unsheltered population. That brings the number of cases associated with that cluster to 36, according to city data.

The city will conduct more testing at AWARE, Housing First, the Glory Hall and the cold weather shelter at the Juneau Arts and Humanities Center on Friday, the city said in a news release.

One of the newly reported cases is a nonresident, who works in the mining sector, according to the city.

Cumulatively, Juneau has had 359 residents test positive for COVID-19 since March and 102 nonresidents, according to city data. There are 50 active cases in Juneau and 408 people have recovered. All people known to have active cases of COVID-19 are in isolation. There are currently six people with COVID-19 hospitalized at Bartlett Regional Hospital.

Statewide, 155 new COVID-19 cases —153 residents, two nonresidents —were announced by Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. Anchorage had the largest reported single-day increase, and Fairbanks and the Bethel Census Area each reported 16 new cases.

For the second day in a row, the state’s coronavirus-related death toll rose. A Valdez woman in her 80s died recently, according to the state. So far, 65 Alaskans have died with COVID-19.

So far, there have been 10,323 Alaska resident cases, according to the state, and 1,025 nonresident cases. So far, 5,439 people have recovered.

• Contact reporter Peter Segall at psegall@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @SegallJnuEmpire. Ben Hohenstatt contributed reporting to this article.