It’s been more than two years since “coronavirus” became a household word, and though case numbers have subsided from last summer’s surge and record highs this past winter, the disease is still in town.
Wrangell recorded about 10% of its total pandemic infections in the last two weeks of March, the state reported last Friday. Of the 517 Wrangell cases recorded by the state in the past two years, 54 came in the last two weeks of the month.
“It’s still here and it’s still making people sick,” Dr. Anne Zink, the state’s chief medical officer, said Friday.
First it was COVID-19, then the Delta variant hit last year, followed by the Omicron variant, and now the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron is responsible for just over half the new cases in Alaska, Zink said. The state health department is using federal funds and working with the University of Alaska Fairbanks to sequence a sampling of cases to monitor the prevalence of BA.2 in the state, she said.
Similar to the Omicron variant, BA.2 “moves quite easily from person to person,” the doctor said.
Vaccination is the best way to avoid getting sick, she said.
Federal regulators last week approved a second booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine for individuals 50 years of age and older, who received their first booster shot at least four months earlier.
While Zink supports the second booster for those eligible, “the most important thing people can do” is get their first two vaccine shots, she said, even if they decline a first and second booster.
As of last Friday, 64% of eligible Alaskans had received their initial two vaccine shots. The percentage in Wrangell was the same, though Wrangell had the lowest vaccination rate in Southeast.
The rate for Alaskans who have received the first booster is much lower — 38% of eligible individuals statewide and 36% in Wrangell.
SEARHC continues to offer vaccinations, whether a first or second shot, or a booster. Call the Wrangell Medical Center at 907-874-7000 for more information. The medical center started administering second booster shots as soon as they were approved last week, Randi Yancey, medical office coordinator, said Monday.
SEARHC has booster clinics scheduled for April 15, 22 and 29, and will add more dates as needed, Yancey said.
While getting COVID gives a person some degree of immunity from getting it again, the vaccines provide more immunity and more protection from serious illness, Zink said. Besides, an individual can schedule a vaccination shot to build immunity but cannot schedule getting sick.
She said some people ask: “Why can’t I just get COVID and get it over with?” Coming down with COVID does not come with a guarantee it won’t happen again, she explained. The doctor, who works in the emergency room at the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, said she has seen patients who have come down with COVID as many as four times.
Vaccinated individuals, even if they catch COVID, are less sick and for a shorter period of time, less likely to require hospitalization, and less likely to die, she said. Almost 1,200 Alaskans have died from COVID and its complications in the past two years, according to state health department records as of last Friday. Most were not vaccinated.
Statewide case counts are down substantially from January and February, with an average of 200 new cases a day the past 14 days, as of the state’s most recent update last Friday. At its peak, the average in Alaska was more than 3,000 new cases a day.
The borough continues to provide free, at-home test kits in Wrangell. Call 907-874-3223 to arrange a pick-up at the fire hall.
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