Tag: covidfisheries

Boats at a dock.

11 workers at Whittier seafood plant test positive for COVID

The infected individuals were taken to Anchorage, where they are under a monitored quarantine.
Boats at port with mountains in the background

After trawler outbreak, American Seafoods tests crews for COVID-19 as ‘precautionary measure’

After 85 people on an American Seafoods vessel tested positive, the company said it would test crew on its other vessels.
A town in tundra next to the ocean

Seafood industry workers test positive for COVID-19, marking first confirmed cases in Unalaska

The City of Unalaska has confirmed its first local cases of COVID-19. Two seafood industry workers tested positive for the virus on Wednesday.

Alaska’s fishing communities have plans to contain COVID-19. Now they’ll be put to the test.

Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of fish are still available for harvest, and thousands of workers are set to arrive in coastal Alaska communities from Outside, where infection rates are much higher. But seafood companies, fishermen and local leaders say they’ve set up systems to limit the risk that the visitors could spread infection.

Second test on Quinhagak girl suggests false positive

After a girl under the age of 10 reportedly tested positive in the Southwest Alaska village of Quinhagak, health officials now say that they believe that test result was incorrect.

86 crew members on American Seafoods trawler test positive for COVID-19

Eighty-six crew members of an American Seafoods trawler have tested positive for COVID-19, according to a press release from the seafood company Sunday night. Nine tests are still outstanding.

Bristol Bay announces 3 additional cases of COVID-19 since Friday

Two individuals tested positive at Camai Health Center’s walk-up clinic, according to the health center’s announcement on May 29. These two will not be recorded as positive cases in the Bristol Bay Borough, because, the state said, "they are not local residents."
Boats at port with mountains in the background

How the largest fishing port in the nation is responding to COVID-19 and incoming seasonal workers | Alaska Insight

As businesses across the state reopen, the Aleutian Islands community of Unalaska in the fishing port of Dutch Harbor faces the dual...

A seafood worker in Valdez has COVID-19, but state health officials don’t know how he got it

A seafood worker in Valdez has tested positive for COVID-19. But state health officials say they aren’t sure how the man, who works for Peter Pan Seafoods, contracted the virus because he has been in the state for a month, went through quarantine and has not left the city.

Bristol Bay, on edge as it heads into fishing season, has its first resident coronavirus case

The first Alaskan from the Bristol Bay-Lake and Peninsula region has tested positive for COVID-19. The state has not disclosed which community they are from because it has less than 1,000 residents.

Fifth nonresident seafood worker tests positive for coronavirus in Alaska

The state also announced that an 11th staff member of Juneau's Lemon Creek Correctional Center has tested positive for the virus.

Pandemic strains management of Yukon River salmon

Biologists have to figure out how to monitor salmon populations in rural communities without the danger of bringing the coronavirus into those communities.
Boats in a sweeping bend in a river

State says it will provide additional testing to communities ahead of fishing season

Chief Medical Officer Anne Zink said that fishing regions would get extra testing capacity as out-of-state workers descend on the region in the coming weeks.

Restaurant closures create uncertainty in the market for premium Copper River salmon

Restaurants may not be reliable buyers this year, as owners grapple with reduced business amid the coronavirus pandemic.

‘Sometimes we get bored’: Unalaska fish processors work back-to-back seasons to keep their jobs

Managers decided that keeping workers on the island would help prevent new arrivals - many of whom come from other countries - from bringing in the coronavirus.

Thousands of summer workers are headed to Alaska from Outside, where the infection rates are higher

“This is a question about levels of risk that Alaska is willing to tolerate,” said Bryan Fisher, the incident commander for Alaska’s pandemic response.