Credit Google Maps screenshot
An 18-year-old died when he was shot while bird hunting with two other young people in Nightmute on April 26.
“Joseph George was shot in the head at close range by a minor as a goose flew by,” Alaska Department of Public Safety Information Officer Gretchen Weiss-Brooks wrote in an email to KYUK.
She says the three young people were “hunting a few hundred feet from the Nightmute airport.” Village health aides responded to the scene, and “for the death to be officially declared,” the health aides contacted the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation to confirm that George was dead.
The Yukon Kuskokwim Fitness Center plans to open to 40% capacity on Monday, May 2. Recreational areas of the fitness center will be open to all residents,
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In those communities with high-transmission, YKHC advised schools to use “cohorting,” and keep students at least 3 feet apart. If schools cannot use cohorting, then students should stay at least 6 feet apart. Cohorting is the practice of keeping a small group of students isolated together for the whole school day.
YKHC recommends that sports and extra-curricular activities remain outdoors. That’s unless COVID-19 cases are low enough in a sub-region to be considered “moderate” transmission.
YKHC has defined six sub-regions in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. The sub-region around Aniak is the only one where there is “moderate” transmission of COVID-19. The sub-region around Bethel has “substantial” transmission, and the sub-regions around Emmonak, Hooper Bay, St. Mary’s, and Toksook Bay have “high” transmission of COVID-19. The transmission levels are mostly based on how many COVID-19 cases have been detected in the last seven days, and the percentages of COV
Credit Dean Swope/KYUK
The Yukon-Kuskokwim Fitness Center plans to open to 40% capacity on May 3. Facility Director Stacey Reardon says recreational areas of the fitness center will be open only to those who have been vaccinated, but the pool and family locker room will be open to unvaccinated individuals with reservations. The pool is one of the only areas of the fitness center where people don’t wear masks.
Reardon says that the facility is reopening to unvaccinated individuals because the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta has maintained a relatively stable COVID-19 case rate for two weeks now, coupled with high rates of vaccination. This downgrades the region from being at “high” risk of widespread transmission to “moderate” risk. The criteria for case transmission is based on a formula written by the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation. That formula is the result of a number of factors, like overall case rate and number of people vaccinated.
After a fire destroyed Tuluksak’s source of drinking water on Jan. 16, 2021, the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation got to work. It sent a team to the community to build new water systems.
The team got a water system with basic filtration up and running by mid-February. It was intended to provide water for things like cleaning and laundry. A couple weeks after that, the workers set up a reverse osmosis system, with extra filtration, to provide cleaner water intended for drinking. But up until mid-April, most people in Tuluksak didn’t get to drink the water from this second system.
The reverse osmosis system is located in the school kitchen, but only staff are allowed in. Tuluksak Principal Douglas Bushey said that it’s a health hazard to let community members go in and out. Plus, he wanted to avoid distractions.