As Delta COVID-10 variant spreads Mat-Su vaccinations creep up, but slowly

As the Delta COVID-19 variant fills hospitals in a new surge, vaccinations in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough are creeping up, but at a glacial pace.

State Department of Health and Social Services data showed that 37.4 percent of Mat-Su residents were fully vaccinated with two doses of vaccine as of Aug. 16.

That compares with 55.1 percent of Anchorage residents and 53.1 percent of Alaskans statewide.

Seventy percent vaccination rate in a population is considered by many scientists to be the threshold for “herd immunity,” or the point where there is enough immunity to control the spread of the virus.

Some Alaska cities and boroughs have achieved the 70 percent full vaccination threshold, according to state data. Juneau is at 75.2 percent and parts of Southeast Alaska are at 70 percent.

The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta of Southwest Alaska is at 70.8 percent of its people, according to state data, thanks to a focused and aggressive outreach by Alaska Native health organizations.

Mat-Su, where many people are resisting vaccines for various reasons, including political, is in last place.

The Delta variant, fueling the latest surge in Alaska and elsewhere in the world, is considered highly infectious, much more than the earlier variants. It is also considered more dangerous with evidence from the Lower 48 states that it is affecting children, which the earlier variants did not, as well as unvaccinated young people.

Delta is likely spreading in Mat-Su. “For the last few weeks Mat-Su has had a higher percent ‘positivity’ (the percent of virus tests that are positive) than Anchorage, about 10 percent versus 7 percent,” said Elizabeth Manning, spokesperson for the department of health and social services, in an email.

Hospitalizations in Alaska had been declining but began rising after the Delta variant arrived and are now at a point where hospitals are seriously worried about capacity, said Jared Kosin, executive director of the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association.

On July 28 there were 94 new COVID-related hospitalizations statewide, according to state health department data. By August 4 that had increased to 101 new hospitalizations and to 102 new admissions on Aug. 3.

As of Aug. 16 COVID-10 hospitalizations were at to 124. The number of Intensive Care Unit, or ICU, available beds in hospitals is also tightening. According to state data 90 ICU beds in hospitals were occupied with 20 available as of Aug. 16.

New COVID-19 admissions are filling ICU beds but they must also be available for non-virus emergencies like heart attacks and automobile accidents.

Meanwhile, 90 percent or more of the Alaskans being and hospitalized are unvaccinated, state health officials say. Older Alaskans seem less affected because most are now vaccinated.

Mat-Su’s vaccination rates have been rising at a steady but at a slow rate, rising from 36.8 percent fully vaccinated on August 4 to 37.4 percent as of August 16.

Anchorage and statewide vaccinations are rising slowly too, however. Anchorage was at 54.5 percent fully vaccinated on Aug. 4 and to 55.1 percent on Aug. 13.

The statewide vaccination rate has increased slowly at a similar rate, from 52.6 percent fully vaccinated on Aug. 4 to 53.3 percent as of Aug 16.