After a single week on “low” alert, Sitka has bumped back up to “medium” Covid risk.
The Alaska Division of Health reported 20 covid cases in Sitka over the last seven days. The threshold for moving from low to medium, and vice versa, is 17 cases in a week.
If anyone is hospitalized in Sitka for Covid, the alert level would shift to “high.”
The primary recommendation for reducing the serious health risks associated with Covid-19 disease is to get vaccinated if you haven’t already, and if you’re vaccinated, to get boosted. On August 31, the US Food & Drug Administration amended the “emergency use authorizations” of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to include updated boosters. Known as “bivalent” vaccines, the shots work against the original strain of Covid, as well as the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the Omicron variant.
The updated Moderna vaccine will be available for anyone 18 and over; the updated Pfizer vaccine will be available for those age 12 and over.
Health authorities anticipate that Covid vaccines may eventually be administered once a year, much like the influenza vaccine.
The Alaska Division of Health is expected to begin distributing the updated vaccines to providers around the state in the near future.
