On Monday, the Haines Borough announced the first case of COVID-19 in the Chilkat Valley.

The male patient was tested at the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) clinic on June 3 after displaying symptoms. The case was then turned over to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services to conduct contact tracing.

Department spokesperson Clinton Bennett said he could not provide additional information beyond the borough’s initial press release as the case is still under investigation. Contact tracing is a process that involves tracking down everyone a person has come into contact with in the past 14 days to determine whether they have the disease.

Bennett said the department doesn’t normally release information about the places an infected patient has visited or the number of people the person has come into contact with, except in specific cases where the information is needed to help identify potential transmission in a community.

The lack of information has been a source of frustration for community members and borough officials alike.

“We have no more information than was provided in the press release. I know that’s a source of frustration for a lot of people. It’s actually a source of frustration for me too,” interim manager and borough clerk Alekka Fullerton said.

Fullerton said the borough will release any additional details as soon as it receives the information.

A press release from SEARHC said the patient had not traveled out of state recently. This suggests that the case could have spread from someone else in the community or from travel within the state.

Emergency Operations Center (EOC) incident commander Carolann Wooton said she had spoken to a public health nurse involved with contact tracing and that the patient had limited contact with others in the community before testing positive. The patient is currently isolating at home.

Wooton said the first case is a reminder that the pandemic should be taken seriously and is likely to be a long-term issue.

In response to Haines’ first positive test, the assembly unanimously adopted recommendations from the borough’s EOC at a meeting Tuesday night, including a pause on cruise ship travel to the borough until further notice.

Wooton said the EOC recommends cruise ship travel be suspended until the borough is confident it can safely deal with a cruise ship arriving in town with tens or even a hundred infected passengers.

Wooton said she was struck by the fact that, even if the ship has a strong plan for isolating infected travelers from the community, Haines first responders will still be required to respond.

Fullerton said it’s not clear the economic reward is worth the risk. She cited discussion at a recent Tourism Advisory Board meeting.

“Everything is a balance, right? If we were going to get a big economic hit from this then the risk might be worth it, but the problem is there’s not going to be a tangible economic jump from these small cruise ships coming to town,” Fullerton said.

Tourism director Steven Auch said he wasn’t for or against the proposal, but he wanted to point out that with cruise ship travelers, the borough exerts a greater degree of control than with independent travelers entering the Chilkat Valley.

Cruise ship passengers can be managed by the cruise lines and held to higher standards whereas independent tourists are only subject to state mandates, Auch said.

The first cruise ship scheduled to arrive in Haines is American Cruise Lines’ American Constellation which is set to arrive July 2 and has a total of 10 sailings on the calendar this summer.

Auch said the company is currently planning to conduct the July 2 sailing.

In general, Southeast Alaska communities with greater medical infrastructure have been more receptive to having cruise ships return this summer, Auch said. The list includes Juneau, Ketchikan and Sitka. Smaller communities like Skagway and Petersburg have said the reward may not be worth the risk.

The assembly approved the cruise ship ban the day before an EOC town hall scheduled for Wednesday night. The meeting had been advertised as an opportunity for the EOC to solicit public input on issues like cruise ship visits this summer.

Wooton said public input during the EOC meeting will still be valuable to shape next steps, but the EOC felt urgency to act in light of the community’s first COVID-19 case. The assembly will have the ability to lift the cruise ship ban at its next regular meeting on June 23, or sooner if the assembly holds a special meeting.

Other EOC recommendations adopted by the assembly include reminders that people wear masks, wash their hands diligently, practice social distancing, avoid travel outside the community when possible and limit the number of people they spend time with. Wooton said keeping a smaller social circle will help with contact tracing.

Haines’ first case comes amid a statewide increase in COVID-19 cases. For a number of weeks in late April and early May, the number of new cases in the state ranged from zero to four a day. On May 8, Alaska entered phase two of the state’s reopening plan, and on May 22 the state opened fully. Since May 27, Alaska has averaged just over 10 new cases a day.