Health

School starts tomorrow in the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District. Students are returning to school for the third school year affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, many COVID mitigation protocols that have existed in the past will not be in place, but the district is still encouraging students to be responsible.

Some Homer residents are experiencing long-COVID symptoms amid steady COVID-19 transmission levels.

Alaska’s percentage increase in drug overdose deaths was the highest of any state in the U.S. last year, from 146 deaths in 2020 to 254 in 2021 — a nearly 73 percent jump. One Kenai-based group is working on an initiative to get more overdose-reversal kits out to the public in the face of the continuing epidemic.

The majority of Alaska is on high alert based on community COVID levels and a struggling healthcare system, according to local health officials.

COVID-19 numbers continue to climb across the lower Kenai Peninsula, according to local public health officials.South Peninsula Hospital’s Derotha Ferraro and Public Health Nurse Lorne Carroll discussed the increase on KBBI’s COVID Brief Thursday.

Hospital spokesperson Bruce Richards said many patients hospitalized with COVID aren’t even there for COVID-related reasons — they’re in the hospital for other medical issues and then test positive once they’re admitted.

South Peninsula Hospital’s Derotha Ferraro and Public Health Nurse Lorne Carroll explored recent changes to testing during KBBI’s COVID Brief with Josh Krohn on Thursday.COVID-19 case numbers continue to climb across the lower Kenai Peninsula. But local public health officials say changes that went into effect Friday morning might discourage people from testing.

This week our panel of Alaska Public Health Nurse Lorne Carroll, school district spokesperson Pegge Erkeneff, and South Peninsula Hospital spokesperson…

An anonymous source inside the Kenai Peninsula Borough says the borough mayor is “strong-arming” the school district and area hospitals over Covid-19…

The human body’s immune system fights diseases with antibodies, but when presented with a new virus, like the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19, it…