Capstone Clinic is one of the state’s main providers for COVID-19 testing, but due to inclement weather in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, there have been ripples of site closures across the Southcentral region.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Capstone Clinic is one of the state’s main testing providers for COVID-19, but due to i, there have been ripples of site closures across the Southcentral region. This comes at a time when the state’s cases have risen, due in part to the holidays which are creating longer wait times, and the spread of the omicron variant.
Spencer says they have tested 15,361 people over the period of Dec. 20-30 across all their sites. Capstone is even looking into adding other locations in Ketchikan and Juneau, but in Southcentral Alaska the weather has been disrupting testing sites from Palmer to Anchorage. The testing site at the Alaska Airlines Center was shut down due to mechanical problems with a collection vehicle. Spencer said there was a heating issue with the site’s collection vehicle and that they had to get it fixed before letting crews return, but according to him it should be back open on Tuesday, Jan. 4.
“The power fluctuations, I can’t keep my staff warm and I can’t make the machines work without power, so it becomes quite a complicated picture if we don’t have power,” Spencer said. “That and the wind makes also it pretty unsafe to be out there with the staff running around trying to do what they need to do.”