Alaska officials are asking hundreds of ineligible people who signed up for vaccines to cancel their appointments

Alaska health officials asked people who prematurely signed up for vaccine appointments to cancel them as hundreds more appointments sat unfilled as of Saturday.

Alaska, like many states nationwide, has employed its own tiered system for vaccine distribution. For the month of February, those who are eligible under the state’s allocation guidelines include long-term care staff and residents, frontline health care workers and those ages 65 and older. Seniors, specifically, are who state officials said they are primarily focused on vaccinating over the next month.

By Saturday, however roughly 500 people in Anchorage who signed up for vaccines at the city’s mass vaccination site — the Alaska Airlines Center — were ineligible because of their age or occupation, Anchorage Health Department director Heather Harris told reporters Saturday.

“Just because the system allows people to register, it does not necessarily mean that an individual is eligible,” Harris said.

[Alaska’s busy COVID-19 hotline was voicemail only — and maxed out. Now a person answers each call.]

She asked those who are ineligible to cancel their appointments or verify their eligibility if they receive an email asking about it. If they do not, their appointments will be canceled Monday.

Similar issues cropped up in January, Harris said, and the city health department called people who were deemed ineligible to explain or verify their status.

“What I was really hearing from people when those phone calls were being made was really about confusion or uncertainty,” she said.

Based on her experience, Harris said, she hasn’t seen an intentional push to circumvent the process but rather a lack of clarity when it comes to understanding whether or not someone is actually eligible for a vaccine.

Over 1,600 vaccine appointments were still available by Saturday at noon, according to Heidi Hedberg, director of the Alaska Division of Public Health. She asked younger Alaskans to help neighbors and family members with the sign-up process, acknowledging that it may be a challenge for some. Vaccine appointments may be booked through the state’s vaccination website at covidvax.alaska.gov.

[This Chugiak bartender is turning an empty saloon into a vaccine call center]

“We are really focusing on those that are most impacted by this virus and we know that those 65 and older are most impacted by this virus,” Hedberg said on a call with reporters Saturday. “And so I really am pleading with those to just wait. Our time is coming. And as soon as we can get those seniors vaccinated — or the opportunity to be vaccinated — then we can move on to the following tiers.”

In a letter addressed to educators and obtained by the Daily News, the state health department this week asked those who had made appointments but were ineligible under the current tiers to cancel them. Teachers and other frontline essential workers ages 50 and up are among those slated for eligibility in the following tier once the state completes vaccinations for seniors.

Multiple organizations representing different occupations and industries have advocated for vaccine priority in Alaska, Hedberg said. And while some have tried to get vaccinated, she said the state tries to explain why the tiered process is in place.

“We really want to get as many seniors vaccinated as possible before we move on to the next group,” said Tessa Walker Linderman, who heads that state’s vaccine task force, during the call Saturday.

Walker Linderman said there may be some confusion over the fact that the Municipality of Anchorage partnered with the Anchorage School District to distribute vaccines — but vaccines aren’t being broadly distributed to teachers at the moment. Instead, vaccines are being distributed to eligible members of the public, and the vaccine distribution being coordinated with the school district must follow the state’s tiers and guidelines.

When asked how long the state would wait with unfilled appointments before opening up eligibility further, Hedberg said it’s something state officials are considering hourly.

“The last time we opened up our January appointments, they went like hotcakes,” Hedberg said, referencing how earlier vaccine allocation sign-ups filled sometimes within hours of opening up. Now, “it’s a little bit slower and we’re not quite sure why.”

She said they’re trying to make sure everyone who’s eligible knows the vaccine is available. Additionally, she said health officials are trying to evaluate whether people may be hesitant to get the shot, if there are so many snowbirds that the estimate of 93,000 seniors in Alaska is inaccurate, or whether there are issues with access for seniors who cannot leave their homes.

“I think we are wrestling with this right now,” Hedberg said. “We definitely feel a lot of pressure to open up additional tiers, but we are holding that pressure off so that we can give our most vulnerable the opportunity to get vaccinated.”