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Print article Alaska on Sunday became one of two states in the United States without a formal COVID-19 public health disaster declaration and the only state without any disaster-related provisions, at least right now. The physically isolated and medically fragile state is also seeing a sharp reduction in coronavirus cases. But without the declaration, everything from hospital coronavirus treatment units to space for large vaccination clinics is in limbo, observers say. In place since March, it provided legal backing for state health orders, as well as flexibilities to respond to the virus and deliver vaccine to Alaskans. “Alaska is definitely in uncharted territory here,” said Emily Ford, government relations director with Providence Alaska Medical Center, the state’s largest hospital in Anchorage.
Print article Alaska’s top public health officials and hospital representatives urged legislators to extend the state’s COVID-19 emergency declaration Thursday as the clock ticks toward the mid-February date when it expires. The declaration provides authority for everything from mandated airport COVID-19 traveler testing and increased hospital capacity to National Guard deployments for vaccine distribution. A 30-day extension expires Feb. 14. Gov. Mike Dunleavy last month introduced legislation to extend the declaration potentially into September. But now that bill, Senate Bill 56, is stalled in committee and faces some resistance in the Legislature, where it’s increasingly possible that lawmakers may not be willing or possibly able, given the tight timeline to approve a declaration that some Alaskans see as part of a larger crackdown on individual freedoms.
ANCHORAGE (AP) â Alaska health officials have asked people who prematurely signed up for vaccine appointments to cancel them.
About 500 people in Anchorage who registered by Saturday to receive vaccines at the city s mass vaccination site in the Alaska Airlines Center were ineligible because of their age or occupation, Anchorage Daily News reported Saturday.
State officials said they are primarily focused on vaccinating older adults over the next month.
More than 1,600 vaccine appointment slots were still available Saturday.
Under Alaska s tiered vaccination distribution system, those who are eligible for February include long-term care staff and residents, frontline health care workers and residents ages 65 and older.
Alaska asks hundreds to cancel vaccination appointments
by The Associated Press
Last Updated Feb 1, 2021 at 10:14 am EDT
ANCHORAGE, Alaska Alaska health officials have asked people who prematurely signed up for vaccine appointments to cancel them.
About 500 people in Anchorage who registered by Saturday to receive vaccines at the city’s mass vaccination site in the Alaska Airlines Center were ineligible because of their age or occupation, Anchorage Daily News reported Saturday.
State officials said they are primarily focused on vaccinating older adults over the next month.
More than 1,600 vaccine appointment slots were still available Saturday.
Under Alaska’s tiered vaccination distribution system, those who are eligible for February include long-term care staff and residents, frontline health care workers and residents ages 65 and older.