Governor urges Alaskans to get vaccinated

ANCHORAGE (AP) - Gov. Mike Dunleavy has urged Alaskans to get vaccinated, amid a spike in COVID-19 cases driven by the Delta variant.

“There is a safe, free and widely available tool to put COVID-19 in the rearview mirror,” Dunleavy said in a statement Aug. 4. “That tool is the vaccine.”

Alaska has reported hundreds of new COVID-19 cases a day since mid-July, with several more deaths bringing the state close to 400 since the pandemic started 18 months ago. Infection rates and hospitalizations have been trending up.

As of Monday, the vaccination rate for eligible Alaskans had inched closer to 59% with at least their first dose. After a strong response to getting the shots earlier in the year, the vaccination numbers plateaued in the mid-50s% for weeks before picking up again recently.

After leading the nation early on, Alaska is now in the lower half of the states for vaccination rates.

Alaska health officials said during the first seven months of this year, 94% of the state’s COVID-19 hospitalizations and 97% of deaths were among unvaccinated Alaskans.

Dunleavy, who was infected with COVID-19 in February and was vaccinated in June, joined Dr. Anne Zink, the state’s chief medical officer, in urging eligible Alaskans to get vaccinated.

Zink said vaccines are the best way to keep Alaskans out of hospitals or from losing their lives to COVID-19.

“Nothing is more effective in fighting this virus and getting us all back to normal than this game-changing tool,” she said.