One new COVID case, vaccination rate is up

By Julia Lerner
Since last Thursday, Norton Sound Health Corporation has identified one new positive COVID-19 case in Nome, bringing the total number of active cases in the region to six.
On Sunday, May 16, a Nome resident tested positive for the coronavirus in a community spread case. The individual is safely isolating, and their close contacts have been notified. Positive cases are beginning to decrease again following a small spike in community-spread transmission last week.
Once an individual tests positive for COVID-19, they are considered an active case in the community and required to isolate for ten days. Once the ten-day window has passed, the case is considered inactive as the individual is typically no longer able to spread the virus.
On Monday, May 17, NSHC reported a sharp uptick in vaccinations, administering 329 first-dose vaccines last week.
“We’ve been doing about 50 to 60 a week, so we did 329 doses last week, which is great,” said NSHC Medical Director Dr. Mark Peterson during a weekly COVID-19 conference call. “That’s about 3.5 percent of our whole region. That’s even better than I had expected.”
A significant amount of the vaccines administered last week were given to children ages 12-15. NSHC began vaccinating this age group on Thursday, May 13, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave emergency use authorization of Pfizer vaccines for children.
“We hosted a clinic on campus at the high school last week, on Thursday and Friday,” said Nome Public Schools superintendent Jamie Burgess. “The students can just get their first dose right there at the school district. In the long term, we’re hoping that we can get our community percentage of vaccinated individuals high enough that we can start thinking about starting to relax some of our COVID mitigation protocols next fall.”
Students are required to get parental consent before receiving their vaccine.
“Our 12 to 15 age group represents about five percent of our region,” according to Dr. Peterson. “We were at about 58 percent of the entire region with at least one dose a week ago, and now we’re at 61, 62 percent at least. So that’s great news.”
Emergency use approval for vaccines in younger populations, children ages 2-11, is anticipated later this fall.
Around 70 percent of the region will need to be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity, according to Dr. Peterson. “We’re gaining about one percent a week, so definitely by October we’ll be above that 70 percent range. Around the time school starts in the fall and for all the big holidays, we should be at that spot where we can really kind of open back up,” he said.
Right now, students and staff across the school district are required to wear masks and practice social distancing. Burgess hopes to be able to relax some of the safety measures once a higher percentage of the student population is vaccinated.
Last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that fully vaccinated individuals no longer need to wear masks indoors or outdoors.
“The new mask guidance that came out essentially says that if you’re fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask outside or inside, small groups or large groups,” Peterson said during the weekly COVID-19 call. However, he said, there are some places where individuals will need to continue masking indoors, including hospitals and clinics, in airports and airplanes, and in congregate settings like correctional facilities, nursing homes and homeless shelters.
He also stressed private businesses can continue to set their own mask requirements.
Vaccinations are available to anyone in the region over the age of 12 at several locations, including the airport, the Post Office lobby and at the NSHC pharmacy.
Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are available without appointments Monday through Friday from 12-3:30 p.m. at the Post Office and at the Nome Airport for passengers arriving on incoming flights. Walk-in vaccinations are available Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the NSHC pharmacy.
“Cases across the state were actually reportedly lower on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday,” according to Peterson, but there are still communities across the state reporting small outbreaks. “We don’t know if that’s lower because they’re doing less testing or if it’s lower because it’s lower, but it’s looking like a good trend.”
As of Tuesday, Alaska has had a total of 69,600 cases, 1,588 hospitalizations (not including current stays) and 364 deaths since the pandemic began last year.
In Nome, the Bering Strait and Norton Sound region, there have been 364 cases, 6 hospitalizations and zero deaths.