JUNE – Alaska’s mandatory COVID-19 border screening on Sunday became optional as a nationwide COVID-19 emergency at midnight.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy said the airport action is the biggest obvious change caused by the end of the emergency, but the state expects to find new consequences in the next few weeks.
One issue was discovered last week: the end of the emergency means a third of the federal government’s monthly food stamp duty loss of $ 23 million.
Alaska has been operating under a state of emergency since March 2020 and is now the only state other than Michigan that does not have a COVID-19 emergency in the country, according to the National Governors Association. In Michigan, local officials and the state health commissioner have issued separate emergency declarations to fill the gap, but much of Alaska has a local government with health powers, and the health commissioner does not have the power to take widespread emergency measures.
“Without a disaster statement, we have no authority to conduct the mandatory testing anymore,” Commissioner Adam Crum said of the impact on state airports.
According to information provided to the Alaska Legislature earlier this month, 2,355 positive COVID-19 cases have been identified, this has been happening for almost a year.
Although optional, it is still recommended, and Crum said the checkpoints at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport and other airports today “will look exactly the same” as during the state of emergency.
The state has appointed test teams under contract until June 30, and the state has been working on new instructions for those teams since Friday night, Crum said.
Heidi Hedberg, director of the Alaska Public Health Division, said it is important that people use the optional testing so the state knows when and if new COVID variants are coming into the state. These varieties can spread more easily than older varieties.
“The importance of keeping these variants out of our country for as long as possible is very important,” said Dr. Anne Zink, medical chief of state, said.
To that end, the state provides airport testing free of charge for all, as well as Alaskans and tourists. Previously, travelers who arrived in the country without permission had to pay $ 250 to be tested at the airport.
In addition to the disappearance of mandatory tests, Alaska travelers no longer have to isolate themselves for five days after arriving in the state. Social distance is still recommended, but is no longer mandatory.
COVID-19 screening station for air travelers entering Alaska at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on Monday, June 22, 2020. (Bill Roth / ADN)
Alaska has been operating under a nationwide emergency order since March 11, 2020, when Dunleavy declared the COVID-19 pandemic serious enough to justify the suspension of state laws and the imposition of several public health orders. At the time, the legislature in Alaska agreed with the assessment and extended the emergency until November.
But in the fall of 2020, the legislature did not lack the votes to convene a special session, and Dunleavy did not want to order the legislators to sit in the session. Instead of letting the emergency lapse, Dunleavy issued a new 30-day disaster statement and then repeated his act in December and January. It kept the state’s mandates for public health going.
The January statement expired Sunday morning at midnight after a dysfunctional Alaska lawmaker was unable to renew it. Dunleavy, who said lawmakers were postponing, did not want to issue a fifth emergency statement.
“The governor has been saying for weeks that he will not extend the statement while the legislature is in session,” Dunleavy spokeswoman Corelea Allen Young said. “Only it has the power to expand. Several legislators have also declared the thirty-day declarations unconstitutional. ”
Although lawmakers have questioned the legitimacy of the governor’s actions in the past, they have asked him to act unilaterally this time. Thirty-five of the 40 members of the Alaska House signed letters asking the governor to issue a new statement, and the Alaska Senate voted in favor of a resolution calling on the governor to act because they were unable to do so.
Dunleavy said yesterday that previous expansions made sense because the legislature was not in session, and that the number of cases was rising rapidly and that the state’s medical system was stressed. Now the number of cases is falling and the legislature is in session, which means that the case belongs to the legislators of the state.
“We feel confident that even without the statement, that the tools we have in place, the systems are in place … we believe we have what we need now to get through this,” he said.
Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage, watched Dunleavy’s speech and pointed out a flaw in the argument: If the governor believes his government can do without a state of emergency, then why did he propose a postponement, and why did government officials testify that it was needed?
Dunleavy said that if circumstances change or “if we run into a hole in the program, if we encounter a problem with the system … we will address it.”
Although the State House is disorganized, Dunleavy said he is confident the legislature can offer “quick action against an item or two” to solve problems.