Health

Cases of COVID-19 continue to increase in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Health professionals like Dan Winkelman, President and CEO of the Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation, say that the region needs to lock down for a month to keep local health care facilities from being overwhelmed.

The 10th person in the region died from complications with COVID-19 on Nov. 17. The individual was an Elder in their 90s, according to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation.

At least one community in the region has entered a month-long lockdown. The Native Village of Eek mandated the community-wide lockdown beginning Nov. 17.

Indigenous communities, like those in the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta, are having a tough time with COVID-19. The Navajo Nation got the pandemic under control within a few months, but now they are experiencing a second wave. 

Deaths and hospitalizations continue to climb in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta as COVID-19 cases surge in the region and across the state. The eighth person in the region died from complications with the virus on Nov. 14. 

Akiak is the ninth community where the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation has announced community spread of the coronavirus. Numerous recent cases there could not be linked to travel, which means that the virus is spreading within the community.

As of Nov. 12, two more area villages have community spread of COVID-19. The Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation has announced that there is evidence of widespread community transmission of the virus in both Kwethluk and Scammon Bay. These are the seventh and eighth communities where YKHC found cases that could not be linked to travel.

Akiak is the latest Y-K Delta village to go into lockdown because of COVID-19. The tribal council president in Akiak, Mike Williams Sr., said that the entire region should go into lockdown as well.

Alaska has one of highest numbers of female veterans out of any state: around 10,000 women who have served in the military. But unlike the men who have served, few women are signed up for the services that the federal government provides for veterans. Operation Mary Louise, named after the former head of the Women’s Army Corps or WAC, is trying to change that.