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I'm concerned about the people who are hurt economically here by the current situation, but I can't help but recall that last spring, before Alaska wussed out on restrictions and started letting in any Tom, Dick or Harry (with honor system quarantines...did even one person ever get prosecuted for breaking it?) for fear of having an economic dud of a summer season, our Covid numbers were among the lowest in the country. Then blam, Covid everywhere. If I were one of the government officials who allowed that to happen, the hundreds of lives lost to Covid since then in Alaska would be weighing really heavily on my conscience right now.
AK numbers are still fairly low, #15 per capita among all states. Hawaii is lowest of all, and they've discovered that the vast majority of infections have been the result of residents traveling out of state and bringing it back home. Makes sense because residents are more likely to interact closely with others and they're not leaving within a couple weeks.
No doubt some tourists have brought it to the state, but I do recall Dr. Zink laying the blame for Alaska Covid spread this past summer directly at the feet of reckless behavior from residents.
Quarantine? Right, I doubt many residents or tourists adhered to that.
Heard on the news tonight that the vax rollout is going much better with the new administration and that anyone who wants the shot will probably be able to get it by April.
We adhered to the quarantine with incoming employees and also decided to close to the general public even though we didn't have to, but the writing was on the wall with people acting up all over the -48 when asked to mask and distance in businesses.
I know it's easy to say, but businesses in the Inside Passage really need to avoid putting all their eggs in the cruise ship basket if they want to survive. And if they can't, they need to build up enough financial reserves to weather the occasional bad season.
Just think of all the jobs Canada will lose and the Billions in $$ in 2021.
I guess Canada just joins the club then.
Cargo trade routes are still open. Trucks, rail, courier flights all cross through the borders.
Essential businesses operate. Managing to keep the virus down.
Dunleavy dropped state of emergency yesterday. Covid testing now optional at airports, free for both residents and tourists alike. However, non residents no longer are required to have negative covid test prior to flying and quarantine is not required either. Canadians must be aghast! Now they're REALLY going to be adamant about keep Alaskans out, right?
Dunleavy dropped state of emergency yesterday. Covid testing now optional at airports, free for both residents and tourists alike. However, non residents no longer are required to have negative covid test prior to flying and quarantine is not required either. Canadians must be aghast! Now they're REALLY going to be adamant about keep Alaskans out, right?
What Alaska does is Alaska's business. It does't change what Canada is doing, and frankly most Canadians aren't paying attention to what is happening in Alaska.
Dunleavy dropped state of emergency yesterday. Covid testing now optional at airports, free for both residents and tourists alike. However, non residents no longer are required to have negative covid test prior to flying and quarantine is not required either.......
I'd like to say congratulations to Alaska now that your governor has dropped your state of emergency orders. That's great news and must be a big relief to all of you!
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Originally Posted by Arktikos
.......Canadians must be aghast! Now they're REALLY going to be adamant about keep Alaskans out, right?
What? Aghast about what? And why would we be adamant about keeping out Alaskans in particular?
I honestly can't tell if you're being facetious and joking around or if you're being seriously piqued and resentful. Frankly in your posts in this thread you've been sounding more piqued than friendly and that surprises me because you are usually very practical and friendly in your attitude about Canada and I've always enjoyed your posts.
So what's up doc? Do you feel you have a bone to pick with Canadians and Canada's government for being protective of Canada's people, its lands and resources and its boundary waters in all three oceans from all foreigners?
If you're being serious ..... what makes you think Canadians would be aghast or would care about what Alaska's governor declares for Alaska citizens any more or less than Canadians would care about what all the other border states' governors may be declaring for their respective citizens? Is there something more special about Alaska and Alaska's citizens than there is about any other American states and citizens that Canadians have not been made aware of?
If you're being seriously piqued then I'm wondering if you actually understand that when Canada makes important decisions about the health and welfare of Canadians that it's strictly about putting Canada first and foremost for Canada's sake, and that no other country anywhere is a consideration to us in coming first before Canada. Canada's decisions for protecting itself are about Canada, they are not about spiting the USA or any other country and it's most definitely not about spiting Alaska who has always been an excellent and valued friend and neighbour just like all the other border states have been.
So please tell me if I'm wrong and that you were just being facetious and joking around and aren't copping a misplaced attitude.
I'm seeing this cruise ship situation as a perfect example and a reason for USA to get rid of an archaic, out of date American law that no longer has any usefulness or purpose to anybody in this day and age.
So what's up doc? Do you feel you have a bone to pick with Canadians and Canada's government for being protective of Canada's people, its lands and resources and its boundary waters in all three oceans from all foreigners?..
...I'm seeing this cruise ship situation as a perfect example and a reason for USA to get rid of an archaic, out of date American law that no longer has any usefulness or purpose to anybody in this day and age.
A bone to pick? Maybe just a little. It's not that Canada has been selectively punitive towards Alaskans, I don't really believe that. The border decisions do have an outsized effect on Alaska though. I feel it was premature to shut off all the cruises through 2021, especially without a discussion about it. Why not let the ships stop in Victoria for a docking fee, perhaps supplies, whatever, but not allow anyone off? The outdated law has some arguments in favor of it, according to most sources, and Biden has stated his support for it in the recent past. Yes, it could become a political football.
Covid is on the retreat in both US and Canada presently. Cases have dropped by 2/3 in US during last 30 days. It's interesting that Alaska is slightly relaxing restrictions now while Canada is increasing them, with a new requirement of hotel quarantines for inbound airline passengers. Trudeau may be feeling pressured by the relatively poor vaccine roll out going on there. I am really curious what the Canadian government "endgame" is, considering they will not allow vaccinated individuals a pass on quarantines either. It appears the country is planning to be shut down for all of 2021.
In any case Canada has had a great deal more success with the virus than US to date going by the numbers, no arguing that.
A bone to pick? Maybe just a little. It's not that Canada has been selectively punitive towards Alaskans, I don't really believe that. The border decisions do have an outsized effect on Alaska though. I feel it was premature to shut off all the cruises through 2021, especially without a discussion about it. Why not let the ships stop in Victoria for a docking fee, perhaps supplies, whatever, but not allow anyone off? The outdated law has some arguments in favor of it, according to most sources, and Biden has stated his support for it in the recent past. Yes, it could become a political football.
Covid is on the retreat in both US and Canada presently. Cases have dropped by 2/3 in US during last 30 days. It's interesting that Alaska is slightly relaxing restrictions now while Canada is increasing them, with a new requirement of hotel quarantines for inbound airline passengers. Trudeau may be feeling pressured by the relatively poor vaccine roll out going on there. I am really curious what the Canadian government "endgame" is, considering they will not allow vaccinated individuals a pass on quarantines either. It appears the country is planning to be shut down for all of 2021.
In any case Canada has had a great deal more success with the virus than US to date going by the numbers, no arguing that.
Okay, fair enough.
My own feelings about it, Canada's border decisions have had an outsized effect on all of Canada's now non-existent tourism economy too, and that's including the effect on the cruise ships bans for all of the Arctic and Atlantic provinces and America's Atlantic states as well, not just the cruise ships on the west coast.
I don't think this latest extension of bans on cruises is premature. The cruise bans have been in effect and extended several times already since March 2020. That's a year already that the ban has been in effect so it's not like the decision to extend it for one more year until 2022 should have come as a surprise to anyone. It certainly wasn't a surprise to Canadians and considering the number of times the ban has been extended already during the past year I think it should have been expected by all Americans that it would continue to be extended until Canada is satisfied with having beat its own covid situation. It's not good enough that cases in some places have dropped by 2/3rds, it's still only 2/3rds so that means there's still 1/3rd too many. Not good enough ..... and now that the new virus variants have arrived in Canada and other parts of the world I think it won't be good enough until it's 100% beaten. It only makes sense that Canada is now increasing its restrictions and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the bans stay in place for another 2 or 3 years until every single person in the world has been vaccinated.
I don't see how Canada having a "discussion" with anyone else about the cruise bans would have made any difference since what is there to discuss? Having a discussion sort of equates to asking for permission to keep the bans in place and as I'm sure everyone must realize Canada and America don't ask each other for permission to each do whatever they want to do with their own sovereign countries. The cruise bans in Canada would still remain in place in spite of any discussions. It's not about politics or money, it's about common sense.
That new requirement of either hotel or government facility quarantines for inbound airline passengers is for Canadian passengers returning home to Canada. It became necessary to not allow returning Canadians to quarantine in their homes because too many were breaking the home quarantine restrictions. To the best of my knowledge the requirements for foreign travellers from other countries who are coming to Canada for essential business have not changed from the way they've been for the past year.
Anyway, I hope you all get something satisfactory worked out for yourselves so that cruise ships can go directly from Washington to Alaska and I wish you luck with that. Just don't expect allowances to be made about them entering Canadian waters and stopping briefly at Canadian ports for supplies only with no passengers getting off the ships because I don't think that's going to happen. Viruses are no respecters of port regulations and restrictions nor of distances and they love to travel on the bodies and in the gullets of hitch-hiking seabirds that like to sit on the hand-railings of cruise ships then leave the ships to visit the ports. That's just one of the reasons why cruise ships so easily become floating petrie dishes.
Honestly, I don't know why people everywhere in the world aren't thinking more realistically about how easily viruses can travel from place to place on the bodies of other living animals besides humans.
Well, this should ensure that the border will stay closed, for a long, long, long time. Canada would be nuts to reopen the border, under these conditions.
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Uncharted territory’: Cheers, deep frustration as Alaska loses state COVID-19 emergency declaration
Alaska on Sunday became one of two states in the United States without a formal COVID-19 public health disaster declaration and the only state without any disaster-related provisions, at least right now.
The physically isolated and medically fragile state is also seeing a sharp reduction in coronavirus cases.
But without the declaration, everything from hospital coronavirus treatment units to space for large vaccination clinics is in limbo, observers say. In place since March, it provided legal backing for state health orders, as well as flexibilities to respond to the virus and deliver vaccine to Alaskans.
“Alaska is definitely in uncharted territory here,” said Emily Ford, government relations director with Providence Alaska Medical Center, the state’s largest hospital in Anchorage.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy, in a news conference Sunday, the day the declaration expired, said it was time to start moving Alaska past restrictions. Alaska boasts one of the highest vaccination rates in the country. Declining daily case counts have been followed by dropping hospitalization and death statistics.
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What? Aghast about what? And why would we be adamant about keeping out Alaskans in particular?
