Anchorage Assembly extends COVID-19 emergency declaration

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Anchorage Assembly has extended into June a local COVID-19 emergency declaration. It is a shorter extension than Acting Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson requested and some Assembly members indicated this latest extension, the city’s eighth, could be the last. The Anchorage Daily News reports the Assembly voted 6-4 Tuesday to extend the declaration, first enacted in March 2020, to June 11. Without the extension, emergency orders, including a mask mandate, would have expired. Quinn-Davidson had asked that the emergency declaration be extended into mid-July. The Assembly also called for regular reports from the mayor’s administration on efforts to transition from emergency operations to normal operations.