Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

There were no reported active cases of COVID-19 in Haines as of Tuesday evening, according to the borough’s emergency operations center.

“We have been waiting for this day,” an EOC statement said Tuesday. “There are zero new positive cases of COVID identified today and there are zero known active cases right now in the Chilkat Valley.”

The news comes after an outbreak that began during the Southeast Alaska State Fair. Active cases peaked at 55 on Aug. 15. Cases steadily decreased but rose again to 43 a month later. Cases again went down, but not before two people were hospitalized last month, including Fred Shields, 70, who had to be evacuated by the U.S. Coast Guard with severe symptoms.

Before the August outbreak, Haines went with few active COVID-19 cases for the majority of the pandemic. Since March 2020 the borough has had 220 cases, according to the state’s COVID-19 dashboard.

Alaska’s infection rate remains high. This week Juneau reported 225 known, active cases and 13 deaths since the pandemic started.