The federal government’s monthly allocation of COVID-19 vaccine to Alaska will nearly double in March, rising to 103,000 first doses from the 61,000 allocated to the state in February.
The vaccine numbers were posted Tuesday by the CDC, then announced Wednesday by the state. They include 93,000 doses that are technically part of March’s allocation, plus another 10,000 doses that the state described as a “supplemental allocation of vaccine for February.”
“This is a significant increase over last month’s total allocation of 59,600 first doses,” Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink said in a prepared statement. “Alaskans have been doing great work at getting shots into arms, fast and fair, and we’re excited this month to ramp up those efforts even more to protect Alaskans as quickly as possible with these safe and highly-effective vaccines.”
Alaska will receive 54,000 first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in March, up from 27,000 in February, and 49,000 first doses of Moderna vaccine, up from 32,300 the previous month.
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The state could receive even more doses if federal regulators grant an emergency authorization to the new vaccine manufactured by Johnson & Johnson, which officials say could happen as soon as this weekend.
The company will have 3 million to 4 million doses ready to distribute next week if the authorization is granted, White House officials said Wednesday. The Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are currently being distributed at roughly the same rate.
Nathaniel Herz is an Anchorage-based journalist. He's been a reporter in Alaska for a decade, and is currently reporting for Alaska Public Media. Find more of his work by subscribing to his newsletter, Northern Journal, at natherz.substack.com. Reach him at natherz@gmail.com.
