Coronavirus update: Feb. 13
February 13, 2020
— by Doug Schrage, fire chief and director of emergency management
This is the first of what will be regular updates to the UAF community about the 2019 human novel coronavirus (variously referred to as 2019-CoV, COVID-19, or coronavirus). At this time, there are no known cases of 2019-CoV in Alaska. There are 13 known cases in the United States.
Along with UAF leadership, a small subset of UAF's incident management team, or IMT,
is monitoring the Alaska Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Centers
for Disease Control for up-to-date information. The IMT is composed of individuals
from across UAF with expertise in their fields and knowledge of incident management.
Should there be any indications of a COVID-19 outbreak in Alaska, we are prepared
to activate the IMT.
No UAF faculty, staff or students are known to be in the affected region of Wuhan,
China. If you or others you know are or have been traveling in that region, the CDC
recommends that you:
- be alert for fever or respiratory symptoms;
- contact your healthcare provider if you have had close contact and develop symptoms; and,
- if advised, follow CDC guidance on how to reduce the risk of spreading your illness to others. This guidance is on the CDC website.
The U.S. State Department has issued a do-not-travel order to China. There are currently no passenger flights to Alaska from China; all passenger flights from China are being routed to one of 11 screening airports in the Lower 48. The probability of a major outbreak in Alaska is low, according to DHSS, but nonetheless is a risk.
Updates on this evolving situation will be published in Cornerstone, and you can stay up-to-date at UAF on Alert. You may also want to review these sources for more guidance and information: