Anchorage Acting Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson may have backtracked on her decision to close down restaurants on Monday. But it’s now unclear. Must Read Alaska has learned she has scrubbed her announcement, which was scheduled for Thursday.
In a text shared with Must Read Alaska, the mayor has decided to wait until she hears more from the local hospitals about whether shutting down restaurants.
“We’re going to pause on the new EO [Emergency Order] until next week or so. Hospitals want a few more days with the data before we move. It’s still bad, but they want to make the call after Friday. Nobody wants to shut down, so we’re making sure the data is solid,” according to the text, which was sourced to an unnamed city employee.
Earlier, another memo circulated among leaders in the restaurant and bar industry, which detailed a meeting several had had with the mayor, in which she told them that on Thursday she was announcing the closure of Anchorage restaurants and bars on Monday.
Now, it appears the mayor is taking her directions from local hospital administrators about the capacity of the hospitals.
COVID-19 has been on the march through Anchorage this fall, with positive tests on the increase every day for the past two weeks.
But on Wednesday, only 12 positive cases were reported in Anchorage. Over the course of the pandemic, 13,292 cases have been diagnosed positive in Anchorage, with 61 deaths, a death rate of less than 1/2 percent.
