Alaska front-line health care workers get first vaccinations
by Mark Thiessen, The Associated Press
Posted Dec 15, 2020 6:47 pm EDT
Last Updated Dec 15, 2020 at 7:28 pm EDT
Rachel Kelly, left, an intensive care unit nurse, receives a dose of COVID-19 vaccine from Emily Schubert, the employee health nurse at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska, on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020. Front-line health care workers are among the first in Alaska to receive the vaccine. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska Coronavirus vaccinations reached the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage as the rollout spread across the state.
Front-line medical workers at the centre waited Tuesday to receive their first shot and get instructions on when to return for a second injection as part of the two-step process.
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Alaska receives its first COVID-19 vaccine shipments; Ketchikan EOC is hosting a Covid-19 Vaccine Discussion
Tuesday PM (SitNews) Anchorage, Alaska - Alaska received its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccine last night via UPS plane. Delivery and transport of the vaccine to health care facilities across Alaska will be happening today through Wednesday, leading to the first vaccinations of Alaskans this week.
“The COVID-19 vaccine is going to help Alaskans put the worst behind us,” said Governor Mike Dunleavy. “We will begin the process of finally getting the upper hand of this pandemic and getting our lives back to normal.”
“Alaska’s Vaccine Task Force has been preparing for many months to receive these first shipments and to guarantee safe vaccine handling according to the vaccine’s unique requirements,” said Tessa Walker Linderman, co-lead of Alaska’s Vaccine Task Force. “The task force, led by DHSS and the Alaska Native Tribal Health
As COVID-19 cases continue to rise statewide and particularly in the Mat-Su Valley, the first 35,100 doses of the Pfizer vaccine for the coronavirus arrived in Alaska Monday and will be distributed throughout the state for the following two days. As vaccines arrived in Alaska Sunday night for distribution on Monday, Alaska now has had 40,160 total positive cases of COVID-19 to date. There were 420 new cases announced on Monday, 18 of those from the Mat-Su Valley.
âThe COVID-19 vaccine is going to help Alaskans put the worst behind us,â said Governor Mike Dunleavy. â We will begin the process of finally getting the upper hand of this pandemic and getting our lives back to normal.â
Print article David Donahue, a respiratory therapist at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, sat next to nurse Emily Schubert on Tuesday morning and rolled up his sleeve. This week marks a historic turning point in Alaska’s battle with COVID-19 as some of the state’s first vaccines were administered to frontline healthcare workers. “The hopes and dreams are that we see enough people get the vaccine that the spread backs off,” Donahue said. Donahue is one of the small number of people who have now begun the process for inoculation for the first time since the disease began infecting and killing Alaskans in March. The state on Sunday evening received its first shipment of vaccines from drugmakers Pfizer and BioNTech after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine for emergency use last week.