Eight new COVID cases detected in Nome

By Julia Lerner
Since last Thursday, Norton Sound Health Corporation identified eight new positive COVID-19 cases in Nome, bringing the total number of active cases in the region to 11.
On Wednesday, May 5, three Nome residents tested positive for COVID-19 in community spread cases. The three individuals are close contacts of one another and are safely isolating. Nome Public Schools held a distance-learning day on Thursday, May 6, for its elementary, middle school and Anvil City Science Academy students due to these cases. High school students remained in session.
On Thursday, May 6, NSHC identified two additional positive COVID-19 cases. One regional resident tested positive in a community-spread case, and a non-resident of the region tested positive following travel. Nome’s travel protocol currently requires unvaccinated travelers to test for COVID-19 upon arrival at the airport, followed by a seven-day quarantine and testing on day 7.
On Sunday, May 9, a Nome resident tested positive in a community-spread case. On Tuesday, May 11 NSHC identified two more cases, deemed community spread.
All eight individuals are safely isolating, and close contacts are being notified.
Once an individual tests positive, they are considered an active case and required to isolate for ten days. After the ten-day window, individuals are typically unable to pass along the virus, and their case becomes inactive.
Last week, NSHC administered 60 vaccines, though NSHC Medical Director Dr. Mark Peterson hopes to administer more in the coming weeks.
“We’d like to see close to 100 administered [each week],” Dr. Peterson said during the weekly COVID-19 conference call. “About 90 is one percent of our region, so in the last two weeks, we’re about one percentage point up.”
More than 58 percent of eligible people in the entire Bering Strait region have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
“That’s still one of the highest [rates] in the entire nation,” Dr. Peterson said. “If we get the kids vaccinated, it’ll be another 3, 4, 5 percent, so we should be getting close to 65 percent in a week’s time. … When we say 75 or 80 percent is likely herd immunity, we’re only five percent away from that. That’s so close, and it’ll be motivating to the rest of the region.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized emergency use of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, developed with BioNTech, in children ages 12-15 on Monday, May 10, a move the NSHC has been anticipating for several weeks.
The next step in the approval process, Peterson said, is for the Center of Disease Control’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to make the final call on its use for children. They will make the final determination on Wednesday, May 12.
“This is a vaccine we already have available on hand, so once we have the ‘OK’ to provide, we will begin that vaccination,” said Kirsten Timbers, Vice President of Community Health Services at NSHC, during the weekly COVID-19 conference call.
Dr. Peterson expects to be able to begin vaccinating 12- to 15-year-olds as soon as Thursday, May 13. One goal, he said, is to vaccinate the children before they return to school in the fall.
“Getting them vaccinated now means they’ll be fully protected this fall, which we really want to see,” he said. “Getting those children vaccinated will protect others in the community, because if they’re vaccinated, they won’t be a vector. It protects them and it allows them to get back to a normal routine at school, it protects others around them, and it gets our region that much closer to regional immunity.”
Dr. Peterson hopes that childhood vaccinations increase momentum among older holdouts.
“In Fairbanks, it’s a younger, unvaccinated population that is getting hospitalized,” Peterson told the Nugget. The most recent death due to COVID-19 was a Fairbanks man in his 20s. “I think when people see the children getting the vaccine, it will develop some momentum and excitement to get the Pfizer vaccine. I hope some young adults get excited about taking the vaccine,” Dr. Peterson said.
One barrier to regional herd immunity is vaccine hesitancy. A recent study from the Alaska Department of Health and Human Services showed that nearly 49 percent of the 1,256 Alaskans who took the survey had not received a vaccine or have not booked an appointment to receive one. More than half of those who haven’t received a vaccine don’t plan to, according to the survey. The main barriers, the survey found, are concerns about the safety of the vaccine and its side effects (25 percent); 25 percent thought that COVID-19 is not a serious disease; 18 percent thought it was a rushed delivery of the vaccine, 10 percent don’t trust it and 14 percent listed logistics, personal choice, efficacy concerns as barriers to getting the vaccine. Eight percent had misconceptions or listed conspiracy theories as reasons for not getting vaccinated.
As of Tuesday, Alaska has had a total of 69,178 cases, 1,564 hospitalizations and 351 deaths, since the pandemic began last year.
In Nome, the Bering Strait and Norton Sound region, there have been 355 cases, 6 hospitalizations and zero deaths.

 

The Nome Nugget

PO Box 610
Nome, Alaska 99762
USA

Phone: (907) 443-5235
Fax: (907) 443-5112

www.nomenugget.net

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