DHSS today announced two deaths and 149 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 138 were residents in: Anchorage (39), Wasilla (22), Palmer (18), Fairbanks (9), Eagle River (7), Petersburg (5), Bethel Census Area (4), Chugiak (4), Juneau (4), North Pole (4), Valdez (4), Anchor Point (3), Delta Junction (3), and one each in Bethel, Cordova, Fairbanks North Star Borough, Kenai, Kenai Peninsula Borough – North, Ketchikan, Kodiak, Prince of Wales – Hyder, Sitka, Soldotna, Sterling, and Utqiaġvik.
Eleven new nonresident cases were identified yesterday in:
- Fairbanks: two with purpose under investigation
- Southeast Fairbanks Census Area: one in mining industry
- Unalaska: two in seafood industry
- Anchorage: two with purpose under investigation
- North Slope Borough: one in North Slope oil industry and one with purpose under investigation
- Juneau: one with purpose in mining
- Location under investigation: one with purpose under investigation
Three resident cases were added to the dashboard due to data verification procedures, bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 56,886 and the total number of nonresident cases to 2,446.
ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 16.39 cases per 100,000. Most regions of Alaska are in high alert status with widespread community transmission. Three regions are at intermediate alert status with moderate transmission and two regions are at low alert with minimal transmission.
High (>10 cases/100,000)
- Matanuska-Susitna Region: 35.68 cases per 100,000
- Other Southeast Region – Northern: 35 cases per 100,000
- YK-Delta Region: 22.57 cases per 100,000
- Other Interior Region: 20.29 cases per 100,000
- Fairbanks North Star Borough: 14.92 cases per 100,000
- Anchorage Municipality: 13.2 cases per 100,000
Intermediate (>4.8-10 cases/100,000)
- Other Southeast Region – Southern: 9.76 cases per 100,000
- Juneau City and Borough: 9.22 cases per 100,000
- Kenai Peninsula Borough: 6.42 cases per 100,000
Low (0-4.8 cases/100,000)
- Southwest Region: 4.8 cases per 100,000
- Northwest Region: 3.16 cases per 100,000
CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,253 hospitalizations and 301 deaths, with three new hospitalizations and two new deaths reported yesterday.
There are currently 28 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and five additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 33 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Two of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 2.9%.
One death is recent: A female Anchorage resident in her 80s. The other is from death certificate reviews: A male Anchorage resident in his 90s who died out of state. Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the individuals who died.
TESTING – A total of 1,731,628 tests have been conducted, with 32,016 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 2.17%.
VACCINATIONS – Reported to date, there have been 163,906 people who have received at least one dose and 111,990 people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 for a total of 275,140 doses administered in Alaska. For more information, visit covidvax.alaska.gov.
TAKE ACTION – Vaccines are being distributed throughout Alaska but we all still need to maintain our COVID-19 protective measures to keep ourselves and others safe and healthy: coronavirus.dhss.alaska.gov.
Notes: 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. When there is a high number of reports being received, this may cause delays in getting reports entered and counted. Personnel continue to focus on the effort to process and count reports and minimize the delay from receipt to posting on the 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; weekly and daily case summaries are archived at dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/id/Pages/COVID-19/communications.aspx#updates.
