Skagway man with COVID-19 makes his name public to speed up contact tracing

Aman with COVID-19 in Skagway, Alaska, said he allowed his local government to publicly identify him in order to help speed upcontact tracing.

"It just seemed like it was a much better, much faster, much better way to get on top of this," said Mike O'Danielin a phone interview Monday.

"I feel I owe it to, you know, the people we work with, my friends so they can sit there and take precautions or do checks and stuff like that."

The community, which is close to Yukon, reported its first known COVID-19 case last week, with four more peopletesting positive as of Tuesday.

O'Daniel, 73, was thethird person to test positive. But the municipality wasnot able to identify all his close contacts, the local government said in a statement.

So after getting his permission,themunicipality named O'Danielin a statementthis weekend,askinganyone who was in close contact withthe man since Oct. 8, to call the local health clinic.

Publicizing name helped 'get this thing wrapped up'

Mayor Andrew Cremata saidallowing the government to reveal O'Daniel'sname was a big help.

"It's amazing," Cremata said on Tuesday, who alsonotedstrict government regulations against revealing medical information, such as O'Daniel's, without permission.

"What [O'Daniel] did enabled us, on a municipal level, to streamline the contact tracing process and really get this thing wrapped up and under control far quicker than would have been possible without that."

Skagwayhas a population of about 1,000 residents, and Cremata saidtheyhave been told toshelter in place since last Thursday.

The municipality says community transmissionwas the source of its COVID-19 infections.

'Nothing but support'

O'Daniel was in good spirits on Monday.

"Feel great," O'Daniel said with a chuckle. "I thought I had a cold."

He said he wasn't worried about any negative reaction from his neighbours.

"If people are going to be negative, they're going to be negative. I mean, there's not much you can do about that," said O'Daniel, who was born and raised in Skagway.

It turns out that he received the opposite reaction from the community.

"Basically, nothing but support," said O'Daniel.

"People texting,saying, 'Hey, if you need anything, you know, just give a call. You know, we'll drop stuff off, we'll do whatever you need done.' People have been, actually, very helpful."