Ketchikan officials downgrade local pandemic risk to lowest level Posted by Eric Stone | Jan 20, 2021 Transmission electron micrograph of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles, isolated from a patient. Image captured and color-enhanced at a NIAID research facility. (Courtesy National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Ketchikan officials downgraded the community’s pandemic risk level to its lowest mark Wednesday. The low risk level indicates little presence of the coronavirus in the community — Ketchikan officials have reported only a handful of new COVID-19 cases in the past week. That’s despite administering nearly 1,000 tests. None of the area’s recent cases have been linked to community spread, indicating that testing and tracing efforts are finding success.