Alaska community issues emergency after 1st case of COVID-19

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) -

The Alaska community of St. Paul has issued an emergency stay-at-home ordinance after its first case of the coronavirus.

An essential worker tested positive on the island, the Anchorage Daily News reported Friday. It is the first reported coronavirus case in St. Paul since the pandemic began, the outlet reported.

The city’s hunker-down order will last from April 1 until April 15 and was approved by the St. Paul City Council on Thursday. All of St. Paul’s residents besides those in essential government, business or healthcare services will be asked to stay at home, city officials wrote.

Schools in the area will be remote for the next two weeks, and work packets will be dropped off by teachers.

The community has 370 full-time residents and about 300 nonresident people on the island.

Officials have said that 177 St. Paul residents are fully vaccinated while 20 residents and 154 nonresidents have one dose of the vaccine.

Common symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough, breathing trouble, sore throat, muscle pain and loss of taste or smell. Most people develop only mild symptoms. But some people, usually those with other medical complications, develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia. Sometimes people with a coronavirus infection display no symptoms.