The State of Alaska’s Department of Health and Social Services held a meeting to offer an overview of the COVID-19 vaccine distribution in the state during Phase 1A. The meeting was held online on Thursday evening.
Sondra LeClair, Deputy Director of the COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force provided an overview of how the vaccine landed in Alaska: “The federal government purchased COVID-19 vaccine from manufacturers in order to provide it free-of-charge to the states. At the time that the emergency use authorization was granted, they assessed the amount of vaccine that was available, having been manufacturer and from that, they allocated vaccine to each state according to each state’s population. The allocated doses from the Indian Health Services are specifically for tribes and were based on tribal populations.”
The phases of distribution were also explained: “For Phase 1, this is when we are in limited inventory, which has focused distribution for certain population. Phase 1A has Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3, and then there’s Phase 1B. For Phase 2, this is when we will have larger inventory with increased availability to the population. Then, in Phase 3 is when there is sufficient inventory for ongoing vaccination using regular processing.”
The Vaccine Task Force plans to provide regular updates, with public comment opportunities, as the process moves along each week.