Alaskans over the age of 65 can now get their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services says senior citizens can schedule appointments on the state’s vaccine website and select a day to receive the treatment. It took less than a half an hour for COVID-19 vaccination appointments for those 65 and older to be completely booked up. Kenai Peninsula Borough Emergency Manager Dan Nelson provided a COVID-19 vaccination update, including the limited number of vaccines currently. “Right now in the Kenai Peninsula area, we have given about 1,600 vaccines. We expect to give another 3,000 before the end of January. Right now those folks that are eligible to receive vaccines are healthcare workers and those residents that are over 65 years of age. We’ve had a number of clinics that have been out on the website – myhealth.alaska.gov – and that’s where you go to preregister for a clinic or for a vaccination event and you can choose your appointment time. Make sure that you have a dose that’s assigned to you and that all of the logistics are taken care of.”
Many have expressed concern over the lack of being able to schedule appointments due to the demand. Nelson said, “Quite frankly, as soon as we get those mass events or even those smaller events, people are signing up for them quite quickly. We are running into an issue where it’s hard to find open appointments at this time simply because of our vaccine supply. Essentially, right now, the state and the federal government is working together to get vaccines allocated. As soon as those vaccines come in, they are going out into clinics and we’re getting that availability out. There’s no holdup anywhere, nobody’s holding them, the state or anybody else. As soon as we get those in, and the availability is there, we have those out for scheduling. Right now, I’m asking folks to understand to keep checking the website and to keep checking for new events. As soon as we have vaccine availability, we will be putting that out there and allowing those folks that I mentioned to be able to register for the vaccine. We’ve had issues where we actually had the FedEx box show up in the morning and they’re getting up into arms in the afternoon. Everybody is dedicated to getting these vaccines out just as quickly as possible.”
Seniors age 65 and older, workers in healthcare settings, and first responders can register for a COVID vaccine appointment at http://myhealth.alaska.gov or at http://covidvax.alaska.gov.
Alaska is expected to have 113,000 doses of both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines by the end of the month.
