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Some Homer residents are experiencing long-COVID symptoms amid steady COVID-19 transmission levels.

COVID-19 numbers continue to climb across the lower Kenai Peninsula, according to local public health officials.South Peninsula Hospital’s Derotha Ferraro and Public Health Nurse Lorne Carroll discussed the increase on KBBI’s COVID Brief Thursday.

South Peninsula Hospital’s specialty clinic on Bartlett street has run out of Moderna Bivalent booster doses, according to Derotha Ferraro, director of public relations for the hospital. Last week, the SPH COVID clinic received a shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Bivalent vaccines, but due to high local demand, all 300 of the Moderna doses have run out.

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.

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.

If you believe that you may have contracted the monkeypox virus, Carroll encourages consulting and testing with your health care provider or with someone at the Homer Public Health Center. While there are a limited number of the vaccines available statewide, the Homer Public Health Center does have doses of the monkeypox vaccine. They recommend those most at risk to get the two-shot JYNNEOS vaccine. The Homer Public Health Center is the only facility on the Southern Kenai peninsula offering it.

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.

The state surveys its seniors every four years for a federally required State Plan for Senior Services.

This week’s Coffee Table on KBBI coincided with International Overdose Awareness Day and marks the beginning of National Recovery Month. Representatives from the All Things Recovery Coalition and Homer Medical Center were guests on Wednesday morning’s show.