With approval from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vaccinations against COVID-19 for children ages 5 through 11 could be available in Wrangell next week.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week approved the vaccine for children, and the CDC late Tuesday also approved the shots.
The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, which was waiting on that decision, will soon start opening appointments to administer Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, Maegan Bosak, a senior SEARHC official in Sitka, said Tuesday.
“Vaccines will be available by appointment, and a parent or caregiver must accompany the youth,” Bosak said.
Those appointments will be available starting sometime next week, she said.
Parents and/or guardians can preregister their children at covid19.searhc.org.
The vaccine for younger children requires two shots, administered three weeks apart, and at much lower doses than the doses for older children and adults.
Wrangell schools “will work with SEARHC and public health officials in any way we can to support our community. I have been in discussion early on with the possibility of a coordinated event if it will help,” Schools Superintendent Bill Burr said Tuesday.
SEARHC also is reminding parents that flu shots are available for adults and children who want to guard against winter illness.
Alaska medical providers and pharmacies have been ordering doses of the COVID vaccine for children, Matthew Bobo, state immunization program manager, said at a briefing last Thursday. About 73,000 Alaska children fall within the latest age group eligible for the shot, he said.
Juneau public health officials have tentatively scheduled vaccine clinics in schools beginning next Monday, Nov. 8.
The Anchorage School District expects to offer evening and weekend vaccination clinics for youth, Superintendent Deena Bishop said in a letter to families on Monday. The district has more than 21,000 children in the 5- to 11-year-old age group.
The Anchorage clinics are not intended to convince anyone to get their child vaccinated, Bishop said. The inoculations are optional and dependent on parental consent.
Though Alaska’s rate of new COVID-19 infections dropped the past week — down to an average of 600 a day Oct. 27 through Tuesday, Nov. 2 — it’s still the highest per-capita among the 50 states, according to the CDC. Tuesday’s count was 499 new cases, according to state officials.
In Wrangell, after 10 new cases were reported Oct. 23-26, officials reported just two more cases in the last days of the month -- and then three on Tuesday.
All three are Wrangell residents, all are close contacts of previously identified cases, and all were showing symptoms of the illness, the borough reported.
As the statewide case count declines, so too do hospitalizations. COVID-19 patients receiving hospital care totaled 184 on Tuesday, according to state officials, down from the record of 236 set last week.
While health care providers across the state gear up to administer the vaccine to younger children, the vaccination rate for Alaskans already eligible for the shot continues to inch up, though very slowly. It was at 65% statewide on Tuesday. Wrangell, which had been at 61% three months ago, was at 69% on Tuesday, though still the lowest in Southeast.
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