DHSS today announced five deaths of Alaska residents and 626 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 610 were residents in:Anchorage (231), Fairbanks (100), Wasilla (45), Kodiak (44), North Pole (22), Eagle River (19), Juneau (16), Soldotna (16), Bethel (14), Kenai (14), Kusilvak Census Area (12), Utqiaġvik (12), Palmer (9), Nikiski (6), Fairbanks North Star Borough (5), Delta Junction (4), Kotzebue (4), Chugiak (3), Girdwood (3), Seward (3), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (3), Cordova (2), Craig (2), North Slope Borough (2), Sterling (2), Valdez-Cordova Census Area (3), Bethel Census Area, Big Lake, Dillingham, Dillingham Census Area, Homer, Kenai Peninsula Borough South, Ketchikan, Bristol Bay/Lake & Peninsula, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Prince of Wales/Hyder, Sitka, Tok, Unalaska and Willow.
Sixteen new nonresident cases were identified yesterday:
- Anchorage: two with purposes under investigation
- Fairbanks: one with purpose under investigation
- Prince of Wales/Hyder: one with purpose under investigation
- Locations under investigation: twelve with purposes under investigation
Ten resident cases and two nonresident cases were added to the dashboard through data verification procedures. This brings the total number of Alaska resident cases to 37,962 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,383.
ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 88.3 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: 177.82 cases per 100,000
- Matanuska-Susitna Region: 157.91 cases per 100,000
- Southwest Region: 95.42 cases per 100,000
- Kenai Peninsula Borough: 88.23 cases per 100,000
- Anchorage Municipality: 85.76 cases per 100,000
- Northwest Region: 64.84 cases per 100,000
- Fairbanks North Star Borough: 56.83 cases per 100,000
- Other Interior Region: 46.31 cases per 100,000
- Other Southeast Region – Northern: 23.4 cases per 100,000
- Juneau City and Borough: 23 cases per 100,000
- Other Southeast Region – Southern: 13.98 cases per 100,000
CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 610 Alaska residents, 332 are male and 277 are female and one is unknown. 36 are under the age of 10; 71 are aged 10-19; 131 are aged 20-29; 111 are aged 30-39; 79 are aged 40-49; 85 are aged 50-59; 58 are aged 60-69; 24 are aged 70-79 and 15 are aged 80 or older.
CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 844 hospitalizations and 154 deaths, with 13 new hospitalizations and five new deaths reported yesterday. Our thoughts are with families and loved ones of the individuals who died.
All five deaths were recent:
- A male Fairbanks resident in his 80s
- A female Anchorage resident in her 80s
- A male Anchorage resident in his 70s
- A male Anchorage resident in his 70s
- A male Anchorage resident in his 60s
There are currently 149 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and 15 additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 159 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Seventeen of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 14.6%.
TESTING – A total of 1,113,360 tests have been conducted, with 30,274 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 6.73%.
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. 9 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.
