There are still slots open for Juneau’s next round of first-stage vaccinations scheduled to take place Feb. 11-12 at Centennial Hall.
Sign ups are on the City and Borough of Juneau’s COVID-19 resources page at https://juneau.org/covid-19/vaccine-clinics-february.
“Yesterday registration opened at noon. We filled about half of our slots,” said Mila Cosgrove, incident commander for the City and Borough of Juneau Emergency Operations Center, in a phone interview Tuesday. “There were a lot of seniors that needed assistance signing up for appointments. We’ve tried to deal with that this time.”
Juneau was allocated approximately 1,600 vaccine doses for February, the city said in a news release. Of those, 1,100 are slated for the Feb 11-12 clinic, 300 are slated for the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, 100 doses apiece are slated for Ron’s Apothecary Shoppe and Safeway Pharmacy.
“If someone is contemplating getting vaccinated and they fit the current demographic, they should really go get vaccinated,” Cosgrove said. “It’s good, it’s safe, and its having the intended impact. People can help by getting vaccinated at the appropriate time. That helps move it along.”
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Technical issues with the website that hampered appointment making for the first vaccine clinic, held on Jan. 15-17, have been ironed out, Cosgrove said.
“It seemed to work fine. It took a second once we hit the button to spool through the processes,” Cosgrove said. “The hotline was a little overwhelmed. People were able to leave messages and they were able to call over.”
Part of the allocation for the clinic is for those who can’t make it to Centennial Hall, Cosgrove said.
“We’ll send out our (mobile integrated healthcare) team to vaccinate home-bound seniors,” Cosgrove said. “We reserved about 100 vaccines for that purpose.”
At least some other providers, including Ron’s Apothecary and Safeway, no longer have availability for vaccinations.
“We received a hundred for February and those are all booked. We’d love to know if we’re getting more, but right now, we don’t have information on getting more,” said Scott Watts, owner and pharmacist of Ron’s. “It’s been going very good. The community has been appreciative of getting them and the team is administering them smoothly.”
Volunteers wanted
Juneau is also looking for volunteers to help with the Feb. 11-12 clinic, the city announced. Applications are available at https://juneau.org/newsroom-item/volunteering-at-a-juneau-covid-19-vaccine-clinic.
Priority will be given volunteers with vaccination or useful skill sets required for certain jobs at the clinic. The clinic will run four hours beginning at 9 a.m. on Feb. 11 and 11 a.m. on Feb. 12.
Volunteers who work four clinics would be eligible for the vaccine, the city said, and training will be provided through a virtual training ahead of the first shift. Some positions require use of technology or being certified to deliver vaccines.
For those with more questions, contact covidquestions@juneau.org.
• Contact reporter Michael S. Lockett at (757) 621-1197 or mlockett@juneauempire.com.
