Kodiak businesses are longer required to limit capacity to 50%, after an announcement from Emergency Operations Center Director Mike Tvenge on Thursday.Â
The Emergency Services Council, a group of local leaders responsible for managing Kodiakâs response to COVID-19, made the decision Thursday morning. Businesses and other indoor activities may now allow any number of people through their doors.Â
âHowever, some businesses might not be comfortable with this option at this time, so please respect their right to choose,â Tvenge said.Â
New cases of COVID-19 have become rare in recent weeks. As of Thursday afternoon, the most recent case of COVID-19 tested in Kodiak was on Feb. 20. There are currently two active cases.Â
About a third of Kodiakans over the age of 16 have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to data recently released by the Alaska Department of
The Kodiak Emergency Operations Center will operate a mass vaccination clinic to distribute COVID-19 shots this Saturday. The clinic will be at the Harbormaster’s Office parking lot on Marine Way.
That case was tested on Monday and is labeled as community spread.Â
No one is currently hospitalized in Kodiak with the virus. There have been 1,045 cases in the borough so far.Â
Cases have been falling in Kodiak and Alaska for several weeks now.Â
But state public health officials said Alaska is not out of the woods just yet. New variants of the virus have appeared in other parts of the world and one, called B.1.1.7., has been detected once in Alaska. Experts think the strain is 50% more transmissible than the current strain of COVID.Â
âThis is not time to let our guard down, State Epidemiologist Joe McLaughlin said in a question-and-answer session with the public on Wednesday.Â