Gov. Mike Dunleavy has requested the Legislature appropriate $4 million in State funding, which would release receipt authority for $9 million in additional federal funding to deal with the expected eventual arrival in the state of the coronavirus called COVID-19.
In a press conference Monday morning, he said the money would be used to hire 10 temporary full-time positions, including five new public health nurses, three nurse epidemiologists, a microbiologist and an emergency manager to help with the Emergency Operations Center, should it need to be activated.
Alaska is better prepared to respond to the virus than just about any other state, he said, because officials here have been responding to the threat since the first plane landed from Wuhan, China, with nearly 200 people on board.
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