Alaska recently opened up vaccine eligibility to everyone who works in Alaska. For those who are interested in getting a vaccine, everyone 16 and older is now able to schedule an appointment.
Kenai Peninsula Borough Emergency Manager Dan Nelson spoke with KSRM on the recent opening, “With the governor’s order on Wednesday, it opened up the tiers to everyone that can receive the vaccine if they want to 16 years and older. From the borough perspective, we’re at 24/25% of the borough vaccinated with at least one dose, that welcome news as now we can open that up to everybody on the Kenai Peninsula that wants it.”
Nelson explains how the recent opening makes administering the COVID-19 vaccine easier, “This decision will definitely make the vaccine administration easier. We don’t want to have to restrict or have to monitor people’s status, we want everyone that wants to get a vaccine to be able to get in so we can make our community safer. We’re getting towards summer, we’re looking at that. If we can advertise and market the Kenai Peninsula as a safe place to be, we hopefully get our visitors and our tourism rebounding and all of those other fall on effects.”
With the dropping of restrictions on who can get a COVID-19 vaccination, opening eligibility to anyone 16 or older, Alaska becomes the first U.S. state to remove eligibility requirements. The expanded eligibility reportedly came after several appointment slots remained open on Monday.
Nelson explains that health officials wondered if many realized they were even qualified to get vaccinated, “The different tier criteria that’s been out since December has certainly been confusing, especially as they open up to certain classes of workers or certain classes of individuals that may have medical conditions. Now we’re looking forward to being to not have to monitor or explain tiers, but rather bring everybody in. That will make things much easier for the public and much easier for the volunteers and employees that are vaccinating people and getting the vaccinations out much quicker and much more effectively.”
Health officials have also stated that the increasing volume of vaccine coming to Alaska as another reason for the recent opening of eligibility wanting to vaccinate as many people as possible.
