DHSS today announced one death of an Alaska resident and 217 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 210 were residents in: Anchorage (64), Eagle River (33), Wasilla (28), Fairbanks (23), Palmer (13), Kodiak (8), North Pole (6), Dillingham Census Area (4), Bethel (3), Ketchikan (3), Soldotna (3), Valdez-Cordova Census Area/Copper River Basin (3), Bethel Census Area (2), Chugiak (2), Delta Junction (2), Kenai Peninsula Borough North (2) and one each in Big Lake, Craig, Dillingham, Kenai, Nome Census Area, North Slope Borough, Northwest Arctic Borough, Seward, Sitka, Tok and Utqiaġvik.
Seven new nonresident cases were identified yesterday in:
- Anchorage: one with a purpose in ‘other industry’ and three with purposes under investigation
- Locations under investigation: three with purposes under investigation
Thirty-five resident cases and one nonresident case were added to the dashboard through data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 44,581 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,511.
ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 40.34 cases per 100,000. All regions in Alaska except one are in high alert status with widespread community transmission occurring.
High (>10 cases/100,000)
- YK-Delta Region: 70.31 cases per 100,000
- Matanuska-Susitna Region: 48.65 cases per 100,000
- Southwest Region: 47.96 cases per 100,000
- Anchorage Municipality: 45.62 cases per 100,000
- Kenai Peninsula Borough: 39.28 cases per 100,000
- Fairbanks North Star Borough: 33.96 cases per 100,000
- Northwest Region: 33.07 cases per 100,000
- Other Interior Region: 23.15 cases per 100,000
- Juneau City and Borough: 12.73 cases per 100,000
- Other Southeast Region – Northern: 10.48 cases per 100,000
Intermediate (> 4.8 – 10 cases/100,000)
- Other Southeast Region – Southern: 6.09 cases per 100,000
CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 210 Alaska residents, 89 are male and 121 are female. Seven are under the age of 10; 23 are aged 10-19; 44 are aged 20-29; 45 are aged 30-39; 31 are aged 40-49; 30 are aged 50-59; 22 are aged 60-69; five are aged 70-79 and three are aged 80 or older.
CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 984 hospitalizations and 200 deaths, with 10 new hospitalizations and one new death reported yesterday. The person who died recently was a male Anchorage resident in his 50s. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones.
There are currently 74 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and nine additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 83 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Ten of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 8.9%.
TESTING – A total of 1,259,845 tests have been conducted, with 22,059 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 4.56%.
ALASKA PIONEER HOMES UPDATE
Anchorage Pioneer Home – Since the last update on Dec. 22, no new cases of COVID-19 have been identified at the Anchorage Pioneer Home and there is one active staff case. Since this outbreak began on Nov. 3, there have been a total of 30 resident and 17 staff cases and three deaths. Another round of testing was conducted on Dec. 28 and if all results are negative, the home will resume weekly testing of staff and testing of residents at the first sign of symptoms.
Fairbanks Pioneer Home – The Fairbanks Pioneer Home has two active staff cases and no active resident cases. All staff and residents are undergoing another round of testing today.
TAKE ACTION – Vaccines are arriving in 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. Extra personnel continue to focus on the effort to process and count reports and minimize the delay from receipt to posting on the hub.
This report reflects data from 12 a.m. until 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 28 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; weekly and daily case summaries are archived at dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/id/Pages/COVID-19/communications.aspx#updates.
