A COVID-19 case in Aniak has put the hub community into lockdown. That means public buildings have been closed, and residents are ordered to stay in their homes.
Following the COVID-19 case in Aniak, the Kuspuk School District closed its schools to students in all eight villages that it serves. In Aniak, Mayor Erica Kameroff said that the lockdown means that teachers can’t go inside the buildings either. Non-essential businesses have been told to close, and subsistence activities are only allowed with household members. Any essential workers traveling to the community are required to provide their company’s COVID-19 safety plans and self-quarantine logs.
Kameroff said that Aniak has a responsibility to others to take this COVID-19 case seriously.
“Because we are a hub village,” Kameroff said. “And you know, things don't only affect our village, but the other villages that we help and provide services.”
She said that the positive case was an Aniak resident who traveled back from Anchorage. Upon returning to the village, Kameroff said that the individual did not self-quarantine; then they received a positive COVID-19 test result.
“I'm sure had they had known sooner they probably would not have been going around the way that they did. But I mean, everything is so much clearer in hindsight,” Kameroff said.
Aniak residents have a number of testing options. Kameroff said that the sub-regional clinic in Aniak has rapid testing and drive-through testing. And the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation is sending 450 additional test kits following the positive case.
Currently, YKHC offers testing for passengers arriving in Aniak from Anchorage, but Kameroff said that is not enough. She said that testing should be done for passengers arriving from Bethel and other areas as well.
“For a long time, a lot of it was like, ‘Oh, but that's in-region traveling.’ But people coming from Bethel, they're coming from a place where there are many known cases,” Kameroff said.
According to the mayor, this is not the first time an Aniak resident has tested positive for COVID-19. She said that community members have been infected while in Anchorage, but were able to receive their positive result and self-isolate before coming back to the village. Now that it’s in the community, she said that the pandemic feels more real.
“I really do hope that it opens people’s eyes up to, we do have it here now,” Kameroff said.
Mayor Kameroff said that it’s time for people to be proactive and take precautions for the greater good of the community.
