At Monday night's regular meeting of the Homer City Council, Homer Fire and EMS Chief Mark Kirko announced that the COVID Incident Command Team will deliver their final regular address to council at the July 26th meeting.
Chief Kirko and representatives from South Peninsula Hospital, Homer Public Health Center and the City of Homer have presented at every meeting since March 9 of 2020.
The team won't dissolve, they have an After Action Plan, assessments and a final report to compile. Team members spoke in turn and named recommendations they will make concerning increased training for city staff, expanding medical care capacity, securing access to air transport, combating misinformation and disinformation.
According to South Peninsula Hospital spokesperson Derotha Ferraro, SPH swabbed their first nose on March 13 of 2020 and have conducted around 24,000 COVID-19 swab tests since then.
As for vaccinations, SPH has administered 7,767 doses of vaccine.
That number does not include the many vaccine doses administered by SVT Health and Wellness, Ninilchik Community Clinic, Safeway and Ulmer's Pharmacy and other health care providers on the peninsula.
Thursday vaccination pop up clinics on the Spit ended last week, but testing and vaccines are still available, free, seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the COVID Clinic at 4201 Bartlett Street.
Appointments are available, but not necessary for vaccination.
If you are experiencing symptoms and want to come in for a test, if you want to make an appointment for a vaccination or if you just want to speak to the COVID nurse on duty, call SPH at (907) 235-0235.
Homer's Incident Command Team will appear live on KBBI on Thursday morning from 9 to 9:30.
You can email questions for the panel ahead of time to kathleen@kbbi.org.
