Wrangell Sentinel -

After leading the nation in vaccination rates earlier this year, Alaska has slipped to the bottom third among the 50 states.

Alaska’s rate has not moved up much in the past couple of weeks, despite an increasing number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations statewide since mid-July — numbers that have not been this high since last winter in some communities.

The higher case count — averaging almost 300 a day in the past couple of weeks and approaching 400 on a few days — comes as students are returning to school, with administrators eager for anything closer to normal operations aft...