Vaccine Point of Distribution (POD) Clinics
Vaccine Point of Distribution (POD) Clinics:
Local communities are establishing Point of Distribution Clinics for the COVID-19 vaccine. DHSS Public Health Centers are partners in these clinics. As clinics are established, we will provide updated information.
Mat-Su:
There will be a POD Vaccine Clinic on January 12, 2021, January 14, 2021, January 19, 2021, and January 21, 2021. The clinics will occur at the Alaska State Fair Grounds. There will be approximately 2,500 appointments available over the course of the two weeks. Individuals that are currently on the Mat-Su Public Health Center waitlist (approximately 1000 individuals) will be given priority for appointments. A secure registration link will be sent to individuals on the waitlist to register. Additional registration will be available at covidvax.alaska.gov. A press release announcing this clinic, with additional registration information, will be released tonight (January 8). I will send more detailed information to Mat-Su Lawmakers for distribution to constituents. It is important to note that initial appointments will be made available first to those on the Mat-Su Public Health Center waitlist.
COVID-19 Vaccine Helpline
The department has received a lot of feedback regarding the COVID-19 Vaccine Helpline that was established to assist Alaskans in receiving information regarding eligibility and appointment availability for the COVID-19 Vaccine.
This helpline is being managed by ATIA (the Alaska Travel Industry Association which had already been contracted to help with COVID-19 travel questions). Following is information that we would like to share with you in regard to utilization and response for the COVID-19 Vaccine Helpline:
There are over 2,500 calls in the COVID-19 Vaccine Helpline box currently. Over 900 calls came in today, January 8, 2021.
1,500 calls have been returned to Alaskans that have left messages.
The ATIA team has returned 500 calls
1,000 calls have been forwarded directly to a team of 30 Public Health Nursing COVID-19 technicians to respond to. Many of these calls have already received a callback.
3. Over 500 emails have been responded to requesting information and assistance with the availability of vaccine appointments
Working with ATIA, the department is committed to responding to all Alaskan’s inquiries related to the COVID-19 Vaccine and assisting Alaskans with finding information and locating available vaccine opportunities.
Alaska Vaccine Allocation Advisory Committee
The Alaska Vaccine Allocation Advisory Committee (AVAAC) is meeting on Monday, January 11 at 4:00 p.m. to take public testimony Phase 1C.
How to view the AVAAC Public Comment Meetings:
This meeting will be held via Zoom Webinar, Facebook Live via the DHSS Facebook page, and by telephone.
Access via Zoom:
Vaccine ECHO - January 11th Vaccine Public Comment
Dial-in access will be available:
US +1-253-215-8782 Webinar ID: 864 7890 1614
Access via Facebook will be available:
Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Facebook page
How to provide public comments:
The University of Alaska Anchorage Center for Human Development is accepting public comments on behalf of the Alaska Department of Health and Social and Services in the following ways:
Submit written comments. These comments will be given to the DHSS Vaccine Task Force and Alaska COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation Advisory Committee and comments may be made public with personal identifiers removed. Participants are encouraged to remove personal identifiers to protect their privacy. Comments will not be read live during the session.
Sign up on the list to provide live comments. Live comments will be limited to 1 min (60 seconds). A limited number of individuals will be able to comment during this meeting. Once you sign up, you will be provided a confirmation of your time slot via email or phone. Please note that we are asking that comments be focused on Phase 1c.
Other Informational Items: We want you to know that we have received your feedback and we are implementing the feedback in the response. Here are a couple of items that we are working on:
The Vaccine Education Team and the Public Information Team are compiling feedback from the public and those who were helping to set up appointments for others so we can improve the appointment scheduling system. We also had an accessibility audit done of the website by a contractor and will be working to make improvements that are within our control.
We are working to ensure that we have language translation as part of the process in the future, at a minimum we will make sure that those manning the phone lines have access to Language Link, which provides language interpretation services for DHSS.
