NVE will get rapid detection COVID-19 test kits

Regional tribal entities will distribute testing equipment

Model of a coronavirus particle. The virus surface is covered with spike proteins that enable to virus to enter and infect human cells. (Feb. 18, 2020) Photo courtesy of NIH

Updated: 5:25 p.m., April 8

Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium officials have selected 20 entities, including the Native Village of Eyak, to receive new state-of-the art rapid detection novel coronavirus testing kits produced by Abbott Laboratories.

Andy Teuber, chairman and president of ANTHC, said that ANTHC would be distributing 40 rapid testing machines and 2,400 test kits for diagnosing novel coronavirus throughout communities in rural Alaska. This will ensure that remote areas, accessible only by increasingly limited air service will now have test results for novel coronavirus the same day a person is tested, he said.

Word from ANTHC on Monday, April 6, came on the heels of more restrictions announced by state officials to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has sickened over a million people worldwide and already resulted in thousands of deaths.

By Wednesday, April 8, the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services confirmed 35 new cases for the 48-hour period ending at midnight on Tuesday, April 7, bringing to 226 the total number of people testing positive in Alaska, including 32 individuals who have now recovered. Twenty-seven of those infected are hospitalized. Of the seven who have died at least three of them contracted COVID-19 while traveling outside of Alaska.

Efforts continue to slow the spread of the virus while medical entities build up their stock of medical supplies to handle an anticipated rise in the number of people testing positive for COVID-19. In Anchorage on April 6, Samaritan’s Purse arrived with a DV-8 aircraft loaded with 17,720 pounds of medical supplies, including beds, masks, gowns and other equipment, which will be delivered in rural Alaska communities soon.

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State health officials also announced that they have extended until further notice a mandate to close businesses where people come in close contact with each other, including restaurants, bars, libraries and entertainment facilities. The state also revised its March 19 health care mandate requiring postponement or cancellation of “non-urgent or elective” procedures through June 15. The list includes a number of cardiac and cancer procedures and surgical abortions “unless the life or physical health of the mother is endangered by continuation of the pregnancy during the period of postponement.”

The state’s decision to extend until further notice closure of numerous businesses, came on the heels of Alaska Airlines’ announcement that it was cutting back service due to a drastic reduction in the demand for passenger travel, plus the shutdown of RavnAir Group as the rural carrier, also hit by a drastic decline in business, filed in bankruptcy court. The cutback in demand for air travel was in part prompted by pleas from state officials to all residents to limit travel as much as possible, to contain the spread of the often deadline virus.

State officials also amended previous health mandates to now require postponement through June 15 of numerous elective surgeries, including some breast, colorectal and thoracic cancers.

The 226 confirmed cases include 103 in the Anchorage/Eagle River/Chugiak/Girdwood area, including four who have died; 56 in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, including one death; 14 in North Pole and one at Eielson Air Force Base.

The first case in the Bethel census area was reported on April 7. State epidemiologist Dr. Joe McLaughlin said medical authorities were working closely with the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corp. and local public health nursing staff to identify those who may have been exposed to that person and offer appropriate testing, isolation and quarantine guidance. “We are making every effort to respond earnestly to this situation to prevent COVID-19 from spreading in the region,” he said.

Those testing positive in the Interior also included one individual in Delta Junction and one in the Yukon-Koyukuk census area.

More people testing positive in the Petersburg Borough, city and borough of Juneau, Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, and the Kenai Peninsula Borough.

Many rural communities, bracing for the start of the commercial wild salmon fishery, have been working with fisheries organizations and processors to come to agreement on plans that would protect workers and their communities, which are ill-equipped to handle a pandemic, by quarantining everyone coming into these communities for 14 days.

For these communities in particular, word of the availability of the Abbott Lab rapid detection tests kits was greeted with great relief by fishing entities.

“Our deepest gratitude goes out to Abbott (Laboratories) for recognizing the history and logistical challenges rural Alaska communities face and for their supply of the ID NOW testing units, where we know testing will have a much greater impact in saving lives and communities for a comparatively insignificant number of tests,” said Andy Teuber, ANTHC chairman and president. “Testing for COVID-19 is a primary tool in our effort to keep the pandemic out of our Alaska Native communities and we are grateful to Abbott for recognizing the critical importance of this measure and our staff, who have been working tirelessly to see this effort through to fruition.”

For many in rural Alaska, word of the COVID-19 pandemic brings a reminder of the 1918-19 Spanish flu pandemic which swept through Alaska, tuberculosis epidemics through the 1950s, and the H1N1 flu in 2008-09, all of which took a huge toll on the state’s Native communities.

Initially the 40 ID NOW test analyzers will be sent with 48 COVID-19 test kits each and the Alaska Native Medical Center will hold remaining tests to resupply areas upon request. Regional tribal health entities, including NVE, will decide how to distribute within their regions.

In addition to NVE, ANTHC is distributing the test analyzers and COVID-19 test kits to the Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corp., Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, Tanana Chiefs Conference, North Sound Health Corp., Bristol Bay Area Health Corp, Maniilaq Association, Arctic Slope Native Association, Kodiak Area Native Association, Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, Eastern Aleutian Tribes, Kenaitze Indian Tribe, Chugachmiut, Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments-Fort Yukon, Copper River Native Association, Ketchikan Indian Community, Metlakatla Indian Community, Mt. Sanford Tribal Consortium, Seldovia Village Tribe and the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe.

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