Alaska rises to number 1 among states for per-capita coronavirus vaccinations

Alaska last week administered more COVID-19 shots per capita than any other state in the country, a striking statistic given the challenge of getting vaccinated across a rough roadless terrain to remote communities in the country’s only Arctic state.

Alaska’s rollout has had particularly difficult places, especially for the elderly. And the ranking of Alaska is not nearly as high when it comes to shots fired from the total received, where the state, according to data from the CDC, falls closer to the center of the national picture.

West Virginia, which relied on the National Guard and mostly local pharmacies to help administer the vaccine, used 83% of the vaccine by Sunday and was previously the top position for most residents vaccinated per capita.

By Monday, at least one dose of vaccine had gone into the arms of 80,300 Alaska, and nearly 18,000 had received two doses. This means that so far less than 70% of the total vaccine received by the state in December and January has been used. The number does not include doses administered by the Department of Defense or the Veterans Affairs System in Alaska.

Health officials here say a number of factors have helped push Alaska according to a CDC tracker, at least temporarily at the top of the list in terms of the vaccine dose given per capita nationwide until January.

For the first time, Alaska received a large number of doses through the Indian Health Service for distribution by tribal health organizations on faster distribution timelines. In some rural communities, teenagers are already being vaccinated.

Health officials here have also decided to make Alaska the only state that receives monthly – rather than weekly – vaccines, which they say add efficiency and predictable supplies to the process.

There are also numerous entities in Alaska that receive vaccines, said dr. Anne Zink, state medical chief, said last week. Dispatches of doses specifically for veterans and members of the military mean that more vaccine is coming out in general, although the CDC does not track the doses in the total doses of the state.

Civil servants say another reason for Alaska’s success is that declining COVID-19 cases allow public health workers and health care providers to put most of their energy into getting vaccinated quickly, a trend that is spreading across the country. states are seen without the numbers rising.

Coronavirus infections in Alaska have declined in recent months following a surge in November and early December. As of Friday, hospitalizations were less than a third of the numbers seen during the fall and winter, and the positivity of the test dropped from a high of 9% in November to just over 3%.

Alaska’s ranking is also relative: other countries are really struggling to get vaccine. In Florida, vaccination sites have collapsed, call centers have been flooded and many eligible people have been turned down due to limited supply. In California, supply chain bottlenecks, limited federal leadership and expanded resources have led to one of the slowest vaccine explosions in the country.

Zinc Advances Alaska’s Vaccine Status on Twitter last week and pointed out that more people are being vaccinated than the virus has been diagnosed since the pandemic arrived in Alaska in March.

“We have seen vaccines go out on helicopters, (planes), cars, dog sleds and ferries,” Zink wrote. “We’ve seen our vaccines push up, take off, hike or snow. We saw the vaccine delivered on shift to homes, nursing homes, work premises and hospital workers. ”

She immediately got heat from people who were unable to make vaccinations.

The rollout of the state did not go completely smoothly. Immediately, problems arose – such as nationwide – over the vaccination of long-term care centers. Some health workers did not want to take shots.

Then frustration and confusion followed an accelerated fitness period for people over 65 in early January. The interest maximized most appointments in less than an hour and claimed the state’s stock of vaccine.

Government officials acknowledged that the rate and process of coronavirus vaccination in the state was slower and more rocky than they had hoped. They say it could take the whole of February just to get through the categories of people who are now open to vaccination: health workers, care centers and the large group of people aged 65 and older.

The state also faces difficult decisions about who is next.

Officials said last week that they were considering relocating teachers as schools re-taught in person. Other groups, including the seafood and transportation industries, insist on giving priority to future vaccination levels, a large demographic that includes inmates and people in shelters, as well as people with underlying health conditions.

An important factor that Alaska advocates with other states regarding the allocation of vaccines is the high number of vaccinations designated for the Indian Health Service – so far nearly 37,000 doses for the state’s 229 sovereign tribes, in addition to the per capita allocation of 78,000.

Zinc told reporters at a recent briefing that Alaska is likely to be unique in including a high number of doses provided by IHS in total vaccinations and per capita calculation.

Nearly all other states with access to vaccine strain trunks have chosen to distribute the vaccine via federal rather than state channels, Zink explained. So the numbers are not included in the state-by-state counts like Alaska’s.

However, health officials here cannot say how many doses of Indian health services have been completed so far.

“It’s very difficult for us to track down,” Matt Bobo, the director of the state’s vaccination program, said Thursday.

The state database that collects information from vaccine providers does not determine if it comes from the Indian health services, Bobo said.

In general, tribal health organizations were able to move faster through their vaccines.

As of this month, in Bethel and surrounding villages in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region, someone 16 years of age and older is eligible for vaccination. By Friday morning, the health corporation in the region had vaccinated 5,233 people with at least one dose of vaccine – about a fifth of the region’s population.

The Maniilaq Association, a tribal health organization that serves about 8,000 people in northwest Alaska, has so far vaccinated more than 1,700 people with their first dose of vaccine and gave more than 800 seconds by Wednesday, Kelli Shroyer said.

Several teams travel by charter flight to different towns in the region to administer the vaccines.

Another reason for Alaska’s higher vaccination rate is that the best health officials chose to receive a vaccine monthly in December, which means it could potentially run faster through the vaccine than other countries that receive their vaccines weekly.

Tessa Walker Linderman, who helps run the state’s vaccine task force, said the timeline could partly explain why Alaska is ahead. The choice to receive monthly rather than weekly shipments was to make it easier to plan distribution to small, remote villages, she explained.

“By getting the vaccine in advance, we can look at areas across the state where we would not be able to use a whole bowl of Pfizer or a whole box of Moderna to send out weekly,” she said. explain. As a result, these communities get access to more vaccine sooner.

Alaska’s large military presence also took into account the amount of vaccine coming to the state. Alaska has the most veterans per capita in the country. The U.S. Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs in Alaska have both received separate federal vaccine allocations.

The health care system in Alaska Veterans Affairs has received 2,300 vaccines and has administered 1,600 so far, said Dr. Roger Bunch, head of pharmacy service in Alaska, said Thursday. The vaccines are distributed at clinics in Alaska.

It is not clear how much vaccine is being sent to Alaska via the Department of Defense to active duty members. A military spokesman said the exact number was not public information, but noted that the CDC included that number as part of its allocation per state.

The number of doses actually administered to active military members and veterans is not tracked by the state and is also not included in the per capita calculation, Zink said.

Herbert Worthley received his vaccine at a VA clinic in Anchorage on Saturday morning.

The 94-year-old World War II veteran said he was looking forward to traveling again. Worthley would like to visit his older brothers, 99 and 97.

He also looks forward to being less hermit and returning to his normal practice: square dancing.

“I danced three nights a week and this thing comes along and doesn’t dance anymore,” Worthley said.

Government officials expect to hear how much vaccine Alaska will receive in February this week.

Daily News reporters Zaz Hollander and Morgan Krakow contributed.