About 40 per cent of those eligible for a vaccine in Alaska, who are 16 or older, are fully vaccinated, according to the state health department, and health officials have been looking for new ways to encourage more people to get vaccinated.
Alaska was the first state to drop restrictions on who could get a Covid-19 vaccine when last month it opened eligibility to anyone 16 or older who lives or works in the state.
Heidi Hedberg, the state health department's Division of Public Health director, said there is an ample supply of vaccine. She said the airport programme will offer the two-dose Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.
Hedberg said officials are hearing from other states that there is "a lot of vaccine availability", so if travellers are not still in Alaska when it's time for their second dose, they can follow up at a clinic or with their provider when they return home, she said.
They would need to make sure that if their first dose was with Pfizer, for example, that their second dose is also a Pfizer shot, Hedberg said.
The state plans to offer vaccines at airports in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau and Ketchikan, with the clinics outside the security area, she said. Details released on Friday (Saturday NZT) differed from a department solicitation in March that included interest in using a one-dose vaccine subject to availability.
Hedberg said officials would do a "soft rollout" at the Anchorage airport for five days in late April, between 5pm and 2am, to work through logistics. The state will use an existing contractor for mobile clinics for the trial run, and it would be for Alaskans travelling in or through the airport, she said.
Vaccinations would open more widely, to anyone passing through, starting on June 1, she said.
State health officials also have encouraged travellers to test for Covid-19, though the state no longer requires that.
