Read the full text of Anchorage’s emergency order loosening business restrictions
Author: Anchorage Daily News
EASING UP ORDER
ISSUED BY THE ACTING MAYOR OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF ANCHORAGE PURSUANT TO ANCHORAGE MUNICIPAL CODE SECTION 3.80.060H.
Anchorage case counts have reduced to the level last seen in early October 2020, due to the collective sacrifices required by our previous emergency orders and the individual actions of residents. This improvement warrants another careful loosening of restrictions imposed by EO-17. In order to preserve lives in our community and prevent the need to return to a modified hunker down during the remaining months of this pandemic, Anchorage must loosen restrictions in a way consistent with public health. In the month of January, public schools began a gradual return to the classroom, so more community members will be gathering relative to this fall. Meanwhile our first batch of frontline health care staff and vulnerable Alaskans living in long term care facilities are in the process of receiving second doses of the COVID-19 vaccines, reducing the strain on hospital staffing. But the vast majority of Anchorage is unvaccinated, and we are aware of new, more contagious variants of COVID 19, one of which has already been detected in Anchorage. These more contagious variants make it more important than ever that six feet of physical distance really is a full six feet, and that masks comprising multiple layers are worn properly covering both the nose and mouth. This order is designed to reduce restrictions on certain sectors of the economy while keeping the virus from reaching catastrophic levels.