Another Northwest Arctic village is experiencing a serious outbreak of COVID-19, according to regional health care provider Maniilaq Association.
Maniilaq officials say 14 residents of the Northwest Arctic village of Buckland tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. All of the residents are currently in medical isolation in the village, which is at medium alert status regarding community transmission. Maniilaq advises locals to hunker down and avoid contact with non-household members.
Officials said the cases in Buckland are connected to the 44 positive cases of the virus found in the village of Kivalina earlier in January, about 150 miles away. Maniilaq declined to elaborate how the cases were connected.
“That is all the information we are able to share without revealing too much information about individual cases,” officials said.
Health officials said they are working with the state on contact tracing to determine if anyone else had been in close contact with COVID positive individuals.
Buckland is roughly 75 miles southeast of Kotzebue, with a population just over 500.
Wesley Early covers Anchorage life and city politics for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at wearly@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @wesley_early. Read more about Wesley here.
