I also received the email with mask mandate this weekend. We are booked on a 19 day HAL sea, land, sea tour on June 29th.
I have been checking CovidActNow.org website for how Alaska cities on our trip are doing with Covid cases. Cases are up high in Ketchikan and Skagway especially. Twice the number of cases in a week in each of those cities than in the whole state of Indiana right now. So it does not surprise me to see HAL put a mandate back in place. CovidActNow website is just tracking USA so I am not sure about Yukon cities on this trip, but guessing their numbers are getting high too.
I have been following posts of a similar trip 'Semi live review Y1L Holland America’s Alaska Land and Sea CruiseTour, June 1 – June 19, 2022' and they were 33 people in their tour group and she posted yesterday that 17 of the 33 did not get to leave Anchorage to board Nieuw Amsterdam in Whittier because their group had 12 positive cases. So, sadly, Covid is having a big impact on travelers and locals.
My impression is that many locals in Alaska and Yukon work at least 2 jobs related to the tourist industry in the summers so as they go down with Covid, so do the tours, the restaurants, and shops. For all of us coming and going this summer, I encourage us to not be casual about it, but be cautious, wash hands often, so we can all enjoy our trips. These areas are not like the lower 48. They have not gone through the all the cycles we have with the pandemic yet, I am guessing.