COVID at a glance for Monday, March 1<\/a><\/ins><\/p>\nThe assembly changed the sunset date to May 1 after robust debate and testimony from local business owners looking forseeking ways to attract independent travelers this summer.<\/p>\n
Independent travelers are critical this summer as cruise ships are unlikely to sail to Alaskan waters amid ongoing COVID-19 concerns, Canada’s cruise ban and a lack of sailing guidance from the Centers for Disease Control.<\/p>\n
“We don’t want to see quarantine requirements extended until May 26,” Sarah Lowell, marketing director for Coastal Helicopters, told the assembly via Zoom. “With the rollout of the vaccine, May 26 is going to hinder our development with independent visitors. We need to hold on to every little bit we can,” she said.<\/p>\n
Lowell added that Anchorage and Fairbanks don’t require social distancing after arriving in town — a factor that she said is prompting independent visitors to scratch Juneau off their summer travel itineraries.<\/p>\n
Bradley Moore, who owns Moore Charters, told the assembly that the five-day social distancing requirement is making it difficult for him to book trips.<\/p>\n
“I’ve lost thousands of dollars from people who choose not to do that,” Moore said.<\/p>\n
Both Lowell and Moore said that hastening the sunset date for strict social distancing would make it easier for their business to survive another dismal travel season.<\/p>\n
Some assembly members agreed.<\/p>\n
“Three and half weeks is a huge amount of time. If we start the season with us closed and other Alaska cities open, it’s very simple; independent travelers will go elsewhere,” said Assembly member Wade Bryson. “We need to start on the right foot by adding three and half weeks to what’s going to be a dismal season. Let’s start to get back to normal.”<\/p>\n
However, concern remained that relaxing the social distancing requirement as of May 1 could open the door to additional risk for the community.<\/p>\n
“My concern is that we get it all the way to the finish line and then be in a serious situation,” said Assembly member Michelle Bonnet Hale. “We’ve done so much work. We may well be where we want to be in a couple of months. But, we don’t know that now. I don’t want to get us that close and then invite an outbreak into our community.”<\/p>\n
Assembly member Loren Jones agreed with Hale.<\/p>\n
“The logic is there that if we open sooner, we will have more independent travelers. At the same time, I worry because other places don’t have requirements and they also have some of the highest infection rates per capita. It’s a balance, physical and business,” Jones said. “Someone can come here and two days later test positive and during that time infect other people in the community. I don’t know where that tipping point is. I think it needs to be considered that one of the reasons we have been so successful is that we have the ability to make it a little safer for people coming into and those in the community.”<\/p>\n
City officials said that they would alert assembly members if the city struggles with COVID-19 as May 1 approaches.<\/p>\n
“If May 1 or 26 comes and things are not good, we will tell you. We won’t be shy,” Watt said. <\/p>\n
•Contact reporter Dana Zigmund at dana.zigmund@juneau.empire.com or 907-308-4891.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Assembly votes to relax travel restrictions earlier in May. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":716,"featured_media":68266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[765,703,75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-68262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-news","tag-city-and-borough-of-juneau","tag-coronavirus","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/716"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68262"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=68262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}