Annie Berman covers health care for the Anchorage Daily News. She's a fellow with Report for America, and is a graduate of the University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. A veteran of AmeriCorps and Vista volunteer programs, she's covered breaking news, crime, culture and politics for Mission Local and KQED in the Bay Area.
“We’re vaccinating, but on the other hand, we’re letting down our guard, so I think we’re kind of in a tug-of-war between those two right now,” said Dr. Anne Zink, the state’s chief medical officer.
A number of hospitals now allow at least one visitor per patient, but are still waiting for case counts to drop further before returning to pre-COVID-19 levels.
Thousands of appointments remain open in the Anchorage area over the next several days.
The most eager individuals have already received their shots, Alaska health officials say, so the challenge now is how to reach a more hesitant group of Alaskans and make vaccinations more convenient.
A backcountry ski lodge said the helicopter was on a heli-ski outing and carrying two ski guides, three lodge guests and a pilot.
Although the U.S. as a whole saw a 20% single-year reduction in incidence of TB in 2020, Alaska’s rate remained as high as it was a year earlier.
Health care navigators from the Alaska Literacy Program are reaching out to the city’s newcomer population to help inform their vaccine choices and ease concerns.
Premature birth is associated with higher rates of death and morbidity.
Some location don’t require appointments.
They described the small joys of hugging vaccinated friends and expanding their social bubbles but say they haven’t entirely let down their guard just yet.
“It just was like a free-for-all out there,” said an official with Visit Healthcare. The no-appointment COVID-19 vaccine clinic was originally scheduled to stay open for six hours.
Black Alaskans have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus — and have so far been vaccinated in the state at a lower rate than most others.
