DHSS today announced three deaths of Alaska residents and 621 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 613 were residents in: Anchorage (232), Fairbanks (69), Wasilla (66), Kusilvak Census Area (35), Eagle River (32), Kodiak (27), Bethel (20), Soldotna (18), North Pole (16), Kenai (12), Juneau (7), Utqiaġvik (7), Bethel Census Area (6), Kenai Peninsula Borough North (6), Palmer (6), Delta Junction (5), Unalaska (5), Valdez-Cordova Census Area (5), Chugiak (4), Nikiski (4), Kodiak Island Borough (3), North Slope Borough (3), Seward (3), Sterling (3), Willow (3), Chevak (2), Fairbanks North Star Borough (2), Homer (2), Matanuska-Susitna Borough (2), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (2) and one each in Douglas, Girdwood, Haines, Ketchikan, Sutton-Alpine and Tok.
Eight new nonresident cases were identified yesterday:
- Anchorage: two with purposes under investigation
- Fairbanks: two in ‘other industry’
- Unalaska: one with a purpose under investigation
- Location under investigation: one in mining
- Locations under investigation: two with purposes under investigation
Nine resident cases have been added to the dashboard through data verification procedures. This brings the total number of Alaska resident cases to 38,584 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,391.
ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 86.93 cases per 100,000. All regions in Alaska are in high alert status with widespread community transmission occurring.
High (>10 cases/100,000)
- YK-Delta Region: 184.88 cases per 100,000
- Matanuska-Susitna Region: 138.71 cases per 100,000
- Southwest Region: 103.33 cases per 100,000
- Anchorage Municipality: 88.92 cases per 100,000
- Kenai Peninsula Borough: 82.12 cases per 100,000
- Northwest Region: 64.84 cases per 100,000
- Fairbanks North Star Borough: 59.96 cases per 100,000
- Other Interior Region: 46.91 cases per 100,000
- Juneau City and Borough: 24.56 cases per 100,000
- Other Southeast Region – Northern: 22.7 cases per 100,000
- Other Southeast Region – Southern: 13.98 cases per 100,000
CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 613 Alaska residents, 343 are male and 262 are female and eight are unknown. 40 are under the age of 10; 62 are aged 10-19; 133 are aged 20-29; 119 are aged 30-39; 82 are aged 40-49; 85 are aged 50-59; 59 are aged 60-69; 22 are aged 70-79 and 11 are aged 80 or older.
CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 852 hospitalizations and 157 deaths, with eight new hospitalizations and three new deaths reported yesterday. Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the individuals who died. Upon additional review, one death previously reported as a Kenai Peninsula Borough North resident was corrected to Wasilla.
All three deaths were recent:
- A male Anchorage resident in his 70s
- A male Wasilla resident in his 70s
- A male Fairbanks resident in his 80s
There are currently 136 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and 10 additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 146 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Seventeen of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 14.3%.
TESTING – A total of 1,123,545 tests have been conducted, with 31,082 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 6.5%.
TAKE ACTION to protect yourself and others: coronavirus.dhss.alaska.gov
Notes: Cases reported to the Section of Epidemiology are increasing. Reports are received electronically, by phone and by fax. Cases are verified, redundancies are eliminated and then cases are entered into the data system that feeds into Alaska’s Coronavirus Response Hub. Because of the number of reports being received, there have been delays in getting reports entered and counted. Extra personnel continue to focus on the effort to process and count reports and minimize the delay from receipt to posting on the Hub. Daily case counts seem likely to remain at this level or higher for the near future.
This report reflects data from 12 a.m. until 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 10 that posted at noon today on the Alaska Coronavirus Response Hub. There is a lag between cases being reported on the DHSS data dashboard and what local communities report. Each case is an individual person even if they are tested multiple times. Total tests are a not a count of unique individuals tested and includes both positive and negative results. The current number of hospitalized patients represents more real-time data compared to the cumulative total hospitalizations. Current hospitalizations are reported for all facilities, not just general acute care and critical access facilities, as is the default on the dashboard. Total number of hospital beds available fluctuate daily as the number of available hospital staff changes. All data reported in real-time, on a daily basis, should be considered preliminary and subject to change. To view more data visit: data.coronavirus.alaska.gov.
