Americans are experiencing their first near-normal holiday weekend, though masks are still required for all traveling at airports and on planes, buses and trains. We take a look back and forward at where the U.S. may be heading in the pandemic.
The next phase of the U.S. pandemic? Pockets of localized outbreaks.
A sudden surge in Fairbanks, Alaska, offers a cautionary tale for places that lift restrictions while local vaccination rates remain low.
ByLois Parshley
Email
People in Fairbanks, Alaska’s second-largest city, have embraced a return to normalcy. Alaska made national headlines in March as the first state to make vaccines available to any adult, and as the snow melted into a long-awaited spring, restaurants were packed, church pews were full, and schools reopened for in-person classes.
Yet signs of trouble became apparent before the trees had even budded. Demand for vaccinations swiftly plateaued; in early April, clinics could no longer fill their appointments. In the last two weeks of April, COVID-19 cases in the Fairbanks North Star Borough rose by 253 percent, and test positivity rates doubled to more than 10 percent. Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, which serves the entire Alaskan Interior, was soon wrestling
The state Division of Public Health and other medical partners have been peppering the Fairbanks and North Pole area with free pop-up COVID-19 vaccine clinics.
In the last week or so, there were short-term events at the Noel Wein Library, the J.P. Jones Center, the Farmers Market, and the Home Show. Last Thursday afternoon at Catholic Schools of Fairbanks, and last Saturday afternoon at Ester Community Park. Some were for everyone over 12, but there was a just-for-teens event for youths aged 12-15 years old to get the Pfizer vaccine last Saturday at Tanana Valley Clinic. Tanana Chiefs Conference held a day-long clinic last Saturday.