Passengers at the Juneau International Airport make their way past signage notifying the public about the state’s travel restrictions on Monday, Nov. 15, 2020. Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued a new emergency declaration which took effect Monday, which outlined a number of travel guidelines for both in-state and out-of-state travel. (Peter Segall / Juneau Empire)

Passengers at the Juneau International Airport make their way past signage notifying the public about the state’s travel restrictions on Monday, Nov. 15, 2020. Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued a new emergency declaration which took effect Monday, which outlined a number of travel guidelines for both in-state and out-of-state travel. (Peter Segall / Juneau Empire)

Emergency extended as governor asks for diligence

Most provisions extended

Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s new disaster declaration took effect Monday extending most of the emergency provisions outlined in the previous one passed in the spring. The declaration allows certain laws to be suspended giving health care officials more flexibility to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The governor’s mandate lasts for 30 days and issued eight health orders providing guidance for businesses and travel during the pandemic. The orders are mostly an extension of mandates under the previous declaration such as travel restrictions and requirements for businesses to submit health mitigation strategies.

The declaration also allows for local municipalities are allowed to enact their own travel restrictions and provided a number of recommendations for people traveling between the communities on and off the road system or the Alaska Marine Highway System.

The orders are not legally different from the mandates passed in the previous emergency declaration, said acting Attorney General Ed Sniffen, but officials wanted to change the name as to not confuse new regulations with old ones. Certain provisions within the mandates had been refined for the new declaration said Bryan Fisher, incident commander for the State Emergency Operation Center, based on experiences with implementation in the past months.

After the 30-day declaration is up, it’s not yet clear what action the governor will take, Sniffen said.

“It’s unclear what we might advise the governor to do,” he said of the declaration ending on Dec. 15. “We’ll see what happens in the next couple of weeks.”

[Gov issues 2nd emergency declaration, but lawmakers cry foul]

When the governor issued his initial declaration in March, the Alaska State Legislature was still in session and able to extend the order, but lawmakers have questioned whether the governor’s new declaration will stand up to legal challenge.

State officials are trying to protect Alaska’s health care infrastructure and make sure hospitals and other facilities didn’t become overloaded with a surge of coronavirus cases, said Department of Health and Social Services Commissioner Adam Crum. Last week, the state stepped up its messaging about health mitigation strategies like social distancing and masking, Crum said, which included a message directly from the governor to Alaskan’s phones using the state’s emergency alert system.

“The message got through, the people are really starting to understand,” Crum said. “The message seems to have been received.”

State officials had heard from a number of regional health authorities, Crum said, who said they had already seen a measurable difference in public behavior around health mitigation strategies.

In his message, Dunleavy asked Alaskans to step up their diligence with regard to the virus for the next three weeks to keep the state’s numbers in check. If the spread of the virus isn’t reduced the state would be limited in its options of how to proceed, Dunleavy said in the video.

“There are other things on the table,” Crum said of additional measures. “But a lot of these things seem to be working.”

It will take several weeks before there’s any measurable downturn, Crum said, and the state is trying to take a holistic look at people’s health, including the economic and emotional toll a lockdown might bring.

Over the weekend the state set a new record for a single-day increase of COVID-19 cases, with 745 new cases announced on Saturday. Sunday saw 654 new cases and 563 were announced on Monday. In Juneau, the city announced 27 new cases over the weekend, but said that clusters among the city’s unsheltered population and among employees at the Mendenhall Auto Center had both finished.

• Contact reporter Peter Segall at psegall@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @SegallJnuEmpire.

More in News

(Juneau Empire file photo)
Aurora forecast through the week of Dec. 15

These forecasts are courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute… Continue reading

Lightering boats return to their ships in Eastern Channel in Sitka on June 7, 2022. (James Poulson/Sitka Sentinel)
Sitka OKs another cruise ship petition for signature drive

Group seeks 300K annual and 4,500 daily visitor limits, and one or more days with no large ships.

The Wrangell shoreline with about two dozen buildings visible, including a Russian Orthodox church, before the U.S. Army bombardment in 1869. (Alaska State Library, U.S. Army Infantry Brigade photo collection)
Army will issue January apology for 1869 bombardment of Wrangell

Ceremony will be the third by military to Southeast Alaska communities in recent months.

Juneau Board of Education members vote during an online meeting Tuesday to extend a free student breakfast program during the second half of the school year. (Screenshot from Juneau Board of Education meeting on Zoom)
Extending free student breakfast program until end of school year OK’d by school board

Officials express concern about continuing program in future years without community funding.

Juneau City Manager Katie Koester (left) and Mayor Beth Weldon (right) meet with residents affected by glacial outburst flooding during a break in a Juneau Assembly meeting Monday night at City Hall. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Juneau’s mayor gets an award, city manager gets a raise

Beth Weldon gets lifetime Alaska Municipal League honor; Katie Koester gets bonus, retroactive pay hike.

Dozens of residents pack into a Juneau Assembly meeting at City Hall on Monday night, where a proposal that would require property owners in flood-vulnerable areas to pay thousands of dollars apiece for the installation of protective flood barriers was discussed. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Assembly OKs lowering flood barrier payment for property owners to about $6,300 rather than $8,000

Amended ordinance makes city pay higher end of 60/40 split, rather than even share.

A family ice skates and perfects their hockey prowess on Mendenhall Lake, below Mendenhall Glacier, outside of Juneau, Alaska, Nov. 24, 2024. The state’s capital, a popular cruise port in summer, becomes a bargain-seeker’s base for skiing, skating, hiking and glacier-gazing in the winter off-season. (Christopher S. Miller/The New York Times)
NY Times: Juneau becomes a deal-seeker’s base for skiing, skating, hiking and glacier-gazing in winter

Newspaper’s “Frugal Traveler” columnist writes about winter side of summer cruise destination.

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy (left) talks with U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski and local leaders during an Aug. 7 visit to a Mendenhall Valley neighborhood hit by record flooding. (Photo provided by U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s office)
Dunleavy to Trump: Give us Mendenhall Lake; nix feds’ control of statewide land, wildlife, tribal issues

Governor asks president-elect for Alaska-specific executive order on dozens of policy actions.

Most Read