April 6, 2020 — Later this spring, Alaska’s Bristol Bay will blossom into one of the largest annual salmon fisheries in the world.
The regional population of about 6,700 will triple with the arrival of fishermen, crews and seasonal workers on jets but also private planes and small boats, many traveling from out of state.
And yet the heart of the health care system in southwestern Alaska, where the Spanish flu once decimated entire communities, is a 16-bed hospital in Dillingham operated by the Bristol Bay Area Health Corp. Only four beds are currently equipped for coronavirus patients. There are no intensive-care unit rooms. As of Wednesday the hospital had a few dozen coronavirus tests for the entire Florida-sized region.
Chief nursing officer Lee Yale said in an email that the Kanakanak Hospital has four negative pressure rooms to treat COVID-19 patients without infecting others and two ventilators.