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Central Peninsula Hospital is buying the independently owned Surgery Center of Kenai for nearly $10 million.The purchase of the two-operating room facility will, in turn, expand the hospital’s capacity and allow it to address a backlog of surgeries.

The Kenai Public Health Center now has doses of the monkeypox vaccine and is encouraging people who might be at-risk to get the shot.

South Peninsula Hospital’s COVID-19 Test and Vaccine Clinic is offering free COVID-19 Bivalent booster shots by appointment.These mRNA boosters contain vaccines against the original strain of the virus that causes COVID-19, and the newest Omicron BA.5 variant.Anyone over 12 years of age is eligible for the new booster, as long as they’ve completed the primary vaccine series and it’s been more than two months since their last shot.

More than 600 pounds of bees were supposed to go from Sacramento to Anchorage, but due to flight cancellations the bees ended up at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport.

Dozens of students oohed and aahed on a cold morning in Anchor Point as biologists spawned a pair of coho salmon and fertilized their eggs. It was the first lesson in the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s annual “Salmon in the Classroom” program, which teaches Kenai Peninsula students about salmon biology in their classrooms throughout the school year.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed guidance related to COVID-19 on Aug. 11, and the Lower Kenai Peninsula followed suit, despite maintaining a high alert status.

The reserve’s series of public lectures and hands-on demonstrations cover a different topic each month, like tide pool invertebrates, volcanoes and earthquakes along the Ring of Fire. This month, Bentz said, her organization chose the watershed workshop because of how many researchers studying local watersheds happened to be in town.

South Peninsula Hospital’s Derotha Ferraro and Public Health Nurse Lorne Carroll explored recent changes to testing during KBBI’s COVID Brief with Josh Krohn on Thursday.COVID-19 case numbers continue to climb across the lower Kenai Peninsula. But local public health officials say changes that went into effect Friday morning might discourage people from testing.

Alaska’s percentage increase in drug overdose deaths was the highest of any state in the U.S. last year, from 146 deaths in 2020 to 254 in 2021 — a nearly 73 percent jump. One Kenai-based group is working on an initiative to get more overdose-reversal kits out to the public in the face of the continuing epidemic.

Homer’s Independent Living Center has received a $98,962 grant to train staff working with people who have traumatic brain injuries. Joyanna Geisler is the founder and executive director of the local nonprofit, which works with individuals experiencing all disabilities.