Here’s what to expect as Alaska continues to roll out COVID-19 vaccines this week – Anchorage Daily News

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Alaska embarked on its effort to distribute doses of the COVID-19 vaccine this month, but only a fraction of people in the state have received it so far.

Across multiple tiers and phases, much about who will receive the vaccine and when is still being determined, and the state remains in the initial stages of distribution as the number of available vaccine doses is limited.

As of Friday, Alaska had administered about 11,800 first doses of the vaccine from manufacturers Moderna and Pfizer. In total, the state has roughly 60,000 doses of the vaccine available for the month of December, but the number of vaccines available for January is not yet clear, officials said on a call Wednesday.

Heres what to expect going forward.

The initial stage of vaccination is known as Phase 1A, and in Alaska thats further broken down into three separate tiers.

The first two tiers included those who started receiving the vaccine this month. They included residents and staff at long-term care facilities, hospital-based frontline health care workers, emergency personnel, community health aides and people who are performing vaccinations.

The third tier of people in the states first phase will start receiving vaccines next month. Based on recommendations from a state allocation committee, the third tier includes people who work in health care settings who are at the highest risk of getting COVID-19 and are also considered essential to the health care system, doing regular work that cant be postponed or done remotely.

They must also meet the following criteria, listed by the state:

Have direct patient contact, or have direct contact with infectious materials from patients; and

Provide essential services in a health care setting that cannot be offered remotely or performed via telework; and

Provide a service in a health care setting that cannot be postponed without detrimental impact to the patients short-term or long-term health outcomes.

Those who fall into this category can start signing up to receive the vaccine on Wednesday, officials said last week. The vaccinations will be by appointment only and will occur on a first-come, first-served basis, Tari OConnor with the state health department said on a recent call. The vaccines will be available at clinics around the state and their locations will be posted online this week. The clinics include sites like community health centers, hospitals and pharmacies across the state.

The federal advisory committee recommended including people who are over age 74 and essential workers as part of Phase 1B, while Phase 1C would include people 65 to 74 as well as those ages 16 to 64 with high-risk medical conditions and other essential workers who werent included during Phase 1B.

Phases 1B and 1C include a significant number of people many more than the number of vaccine doses available, Tessa Walker Linderman, who heads up the states vaccine task force, said last week. Thats where the states committee will be helpful in determining who specifically should be next in line. While the federal committee issues broader guidelines, Alaskas committee breaks them down into smaller groups.

Those interested in providing input on how the vaccines should be distributed in Alaska can do so Monday during a public meeting scheduled for 4 to 5 p.m. You can submit written comments beforehand or sign up to provide a 1-minute comment during the meeting.

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Here's what to expect as Alaska continues to roll out COVID-19 vaccines this week - Anchorage Daily News