Health

Yukon-Kuskokwim Elder’s Home resident Xenia Jackson was one of the first people in the Y-K Delta to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in December 2020. The shot capped off a tumultuous year in which she tested positive for COVID-19.

On Jan. 16, a fire in Tuluksak destroyed the village’s washeteria and water plant building, which was their only source of clean, running water. The Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation hosted a meeting for a number of local, state, and federal agencies to address the crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic is just one of several complicating factors. 

Nearly 5,000 people in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and almost a fifth of those people have also received their second dose. That makes more people in the region who have received at least one dose of the vaccine than have tested positive for the virus. Across the region, 4,248 people have tested positive for COVID-19 as of Jan. 20, according to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation.

At the end of 2020, a 36-year-old former tribal police officer died from COVID-19. He was to be buried in Kongiganak, a burial which his family in Akiachak couldn’t attend because of travel restrictions. Here’s a story about how people are finding new ways to say goodbye to their loved ones during the pandemic.

The Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation opened eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine to the general population in the entire Y-K Delta on Jan. 19. KYUK reporter Greg Kim documented his experience of getting the vaccine, while talking to others who also received it. 

On Saturday, Jan. 19, a fire destroyed Tuluksak’s only source of clean, running water. Cases of bottled water are sitting in Bethel because airport runway closures and thin river ice have delayed delivery.

Beginning Tuesday, Jan. 19, everyone in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta aged 16 or older will be eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The expansion makes the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta the first full region in Alaska, and one of the first areas in the nation, where the vaccine will open to the general population.