COVID-19 testing is available seven days a week, and participants will be given color-coded wristbands to identify what stage of quarantine that person is in.
The Dillingham City Council and City Manager Tod Larson discussed details of COVID-19 testing, ordinance enforcement and CARES Act funding at a workshop last night.
Capstone Clinic is in charge of testing people at the harbor in the Animal Control Building. The clinic started screening people Saturday, after Dillingham’s first confirmed case of COVID-19 was announced by local and state officials. The clinic was originally scheduled to start yesterday, but Kanakanak Hospital expedited the process, providing them with materials they did not have yet.
Once swabs are taken, a presumptive result will be presented. The results are then sent out to an Anchorage lab, which will confirm them within 48 hours.
City Manager Tod Larson said Capstone is going to give people color-coded wristbands to identify what stage of quarantine they are in. The colors of the wristbands have not yet been confirmed.
“They’re going to put one coded band on for the first test," Larson said. "So maybe yellow, if you see a bunch of people with yellows, they shouldn’t be wandering around town, or in the harbor, they should be in quarantine. The second test, let’s say it’s a blue band. That will mean they’re out of quarantine, they passed through two tests. It will be a good visual for people to pick them out.”
Testing will be available seven days a week between 6:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Larson also shared that he’s working with the state to possibly setup testing at the airport.
The Dillingham Police Department issued citations yesterday to people arriving on the first Alaska Air flights. Larson said two people were cited for missing travel permits. Two others were issued over the weekend; one person was cited for violating quarantine, and another for missing a protective face mask.
“I talked to [the city's chief of police], he’s got his folks out there," Larson said. "Like I said before, we’re going to set the standard early on and make sure everybody knows that if you come to Dillingham, you have to follow the rules that we’ve established.”
The city is also getting ready to receive CARES Act funding. The Alaska House Legislature passed the spending plan today, but it must be passed by the Senate. If the money is shared as Governor Mike Dunleavy proposed, Larson said Dillingham will receive $3.4 million in three separate installments.
"It hasn’t got out," he said. "But we will need a city resolution to pass the CARES funding.”
The city will have a special meeting to pass that resolution once the funding is distributed. The Finance and Budget committee met yesterday and last week to prepare for how that money could be spent. The next COVID-19 workshop is scheduled for next week.
Contact the author at tyler@kdlg.org or 907-842-2200
