The COVID-19 vaccine is here, but Juneau city officials say it’s not time to relax

Updated Post — Dec. 23, 9:30 a.m.

Juneau city officials say the vaccine is here, but it’s not yet time to relax.

“What we continue to know right now is that the vaccine is pretty effective, 95% or higher effective at preventing the symptoms of COVID-19. So what that means is that it’s good at keeping you from getting sick,” said Emergency Operations Center Planning Chief Robert Barr. “We don’t yet know if it’s effective at presenting the virus that causes COVID-19.”

Deputy City Manager Mila Cosgrove said Tuesday that Juneau is scheduled to receive about 400 doses of the Moderna vaccine and has gotten just over 1,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

The city reported that 12 people are newly diagnosed with COVID-19 as of Tuesday. But overall, Cosgrove says the city’s numbers and percent of positive tests are down. She said she would like to keep it that way.

“As you celebrate the holidays, please keep your indoor time with people outside of your immediate family members as small as possible,” she said. “We are hoping that our numbers stay low over these next several weeks and that in early January that will set us up to drop our community mitigation level down and set ourselves up for schools to reopen.”

Barr and Cosgrove spoke during the city’s regular COVID-19 update on Tuesday.

Barr said Juneau’s airport testing program is scheduled to continue through the end of January. According to the city’s latest data, they’ve found 61 COVID-19 positive travelers under this program since June.

The state is looking for a vendor to take over that program in February.

Additionally the city has installed a Roche testing machine at the hospital and staff are being trained as to how to use it. Right now, they estimate they can test about 960 people per week once it’s up and running.

Barr said the city is hoping to have its local testing program ready to go by the end of January.

Original Post — Dec. 22, 1:19 p.m.

City and Borough of Juneau staff will give their latest COVID-19 update at 4 p.m. today.

City Manager Rorie Watt and member of the local emergency operations center will give a presentation and then answer questions from community members and media.

Meanwhile, Bartlett Regional Hospital reported Tuesday that 7,000 Alaskans have been vaccinated with the first dose of Pfizer’s vaccine against the virus, 495 of them are staff at the hospital. The hospital has 105 vaccines ready for staff who haven’t signed up to receive it yet. There are currently two vaccines circulating in Alaska. Both require two doses.

You can stream the city’s update here, join the Zoom webinar or call 1-346-248-7799 or 1-669-900-6833 or 1-253-215-8782, and use the Webinar ID: 985 6308 5159.

If you want to ask a question in advance, you can email COVIDquestions@juneau.org.

Rashah McChesney

Daily News Editor

I help the newsroom establish daily news priorities and do hands-on editing to ensure a steady stream of breaking and enterprise news for a local and regional audience.

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